Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] git server upgraded

[Bob Proulx]

Ineiev wrote:
> Bob Proulx wrote:
> > Among the obstacles the MariaDB API used to access the SQL database
> > changed program interfaces which broke building the libnss-mysql
> > library used to bridge those two things.
> ...
> > Changes to the GNU autotools required more updating than the C API
> > change!  And then also updated the deb packaging.  There is still more
> > work needed to polish up the deb packaging but it's function again and
> > everything is working on the current Trisquel 11.  I expect when 12
> > releases that we will be able to roll to it quickly.
>
> How about using libnss-extrausers instead of libnss-mysql?  the former
> still comes with Trisquel 11, and it works with Savane at download0.

The problem with libnss-extrausers is that it works from files.  It
does not use the database.  It requires the database to be dumped at
some periodic frequency into files in order for those files to be
updated from the live database with current.

This introduces a delay between someone, say, adding a new member to
their project group to give them commit access and then having that
access available.  They would need to add the new member and then wait
an hour or some other time based upon the dump frequency interval for
it to become effective.  Even if the database were dumped to files
very often it is still a time delay which would need to be introduced
and published to the user.  Worse is if someone needs to REMOVE a
malicious member from a project.  In which case there would be a delay
before that removal became in effect.

Introducing user seen delays such as that would be a regression of
functionality over not having any delays at all.  Plus the
libnss-mysql library already exists as a mature code base that we have
been using (and therefore testing) for many years.  Both the nss and
the mariadb interfaces are mature, documented, relatively easy
interfaces to use making this an easy code base to maintain locally.

Bob