[OpenAFS] Status of the AFS::Command CPAN module
Phillip Moore
w.phillip.moore@gmail.com
Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:34:09 -0400
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If all the functionality of vos/pts/fs/bos were available in C libraries,
that is precisely how I would like to implement this. In fact, I've bitched
and moaned about this endlessly over the years, and the fact is that in
order to automate AFS administration, you still *MUST* use the CLI utilities
for most tasks. I would love to be proven wrong.
However, even if we went this route, that would be a complete and total
rewrite of this code from the ground up, and will be far from trivial.
Let's agree to implement that in AFS::Command V3. You have obviously never
done any perl development with XS, either -- it's very, very non-trivial and
something I would not wish upon my worst enemies. I spent several years
trying to perfect the MQSeries API, the core of which was XS wrappers around
IBM C libraries, and that's how long it took to hunt down and kill off the
last memory leak.
For now, V2 is merely a modernization of the current implementation, and
it's taken me a total of 2 days to complete, although I have maybe another 2
or 3 days of improvements I want to complete. I would estimate that an XS
based wrapper around libadmin and friends is a few months of effort, at
least.
Tactically, AFS::Command will continue to screen scrape the CLI.
Strategically, what you propose is precisely the direction I want to go in,
it's just going to take some time and energy, but then, I have plenty of
both :-P
On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 1:15 PM, Jeffrey Altman <
jaltman@secure-endpoints.com> wrote:
> On 10/15/2010 1:01 PM, Phillip Moore wrote:
>
> > Since AFS::Command is a glorified screen scraper, a few of the
> > commands no longer accept lists of names/ids in order to make the error
> > handling robust.
>
> How about turning the implementation into something based on top of
> libadmin instead of executing command line tools? One of the big
> challenges preventing improvements to the command line tools is the fear
> that adding to, removing from or restructuring the command output is
> going to break tools that parse the output.
>
> Jeffrey Altman
>
>
>
>
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<div><br></div>If all the functionality of vos/pts/fs/bos were available in=
C libraries, that is precisely how I would like to implement this. =A0In f=
act, I've bitched and moaned about this endlessly over the years, and t=
he fact is that in order to automate AFS administration, you still *MUST* u=
se the CLI utilities for most tasks. =A0I would love to be proven wrong.<di=
v>
<br></div><div>However, even if we went this route, that would be a complet=
e and total rewrite of this code from the ground up, and will be far from t=
rivial. =A0 Let's agree to implement that in AFS::Command V3. =A0You ha=
ve obviously never done any perl development with XS, either -- it's ve=
ry, very non-trivial and something I would not wish upon my worst enemies. =
=A0 I spent several years trying to perfect the MQSeries API, the core of w=
hich was XS wrappers around IBM C libraries, and that's how long it too=
k to hunt down and kill off the last memory leak.</div>
<div><br></div><div>For now, V2 is merely a modernization of the current im=
plementation, and it's taken me a total of 2 days to complete, although=
I have maybe another 2 or 3 days of improvements I want to complete. =A0 I=
would estimate that an XS based wrapper around libadmin and friends is a f=
ew months of effort, at least.=A0</div>
<div><br></div><div>Tactically, AFS::Command will continue to screen scrape=
the CLI.</div><div><br></div><div>Strategically, what you propose is preci=
sely the direction I want to go in, it's just going to take some time a=
nd energy, but then, I have plenty of both :-P<br>
<br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 1:15 PM, Jeffrey Alt=
man <span dir=3D"ltr"><<a href=3D"mailto:jaltman@secure-endpoints.com">j=
altman@secure-endpoints.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"g=
mail_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-l=
eft:1ex;">
<div class=3D"im">On 10/15/2010 1:01 PM, Phillip Moore wrote:<br>
<br>
> Since AFS::Command is a glorified screen scraper, a few of the<br>
> commands no longer accept lists of names/ids in order to make the erro=
r<br>
> handling robust.<br>
<br>
</div>How about turning the implementation into something based on top of<b=
r>
libadmin instead of executing command line tools? =A0 One of the big<br>
challenges preventing improvements to the command line tools is the fear<br=
>
that adding to, removing from or restructuring the command output is<br>
going to break tools that parse the output.<br>
<font color=3D"#888888"><br>
Jeffrey Altman<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br></div>
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