Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org?

From	Raphael Geissert <geissert@debian.org>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.project
Subject	Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org?
Date	2016-04-12 14:00 +0200
Message-ID	<rn597-6Rq-3@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References	<rn0Cu-3dN-19@gated-at.bofh.it>
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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Hi,

On 12 April 2016 at 09:04, Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> we keep getting reports of httpredir.debian.org not working correctly,
> such as intermittently just sending errors or redirecting to mirrors
> that are out of date.
[...]
> So, it appears as if currently nobody has time or the energy to take
> care of httpredir.debian.org properly.
>
> I suggest we shut down the service for now.  If, at some future point,
> somebody wants to maintain again we can always start it up again.

Let me summarise the current situation:
- user-visible errors happen from time to time,  possibly increasing over time
- the current code base has a high cost of maintenance
- the current infrastructure is not homogeneous, there are three
hosts, each launching the application in a different way
- the main code contributors (Simon and yours truly) have been
EBUSY/ENOTIME for a while - Simon, please correct me if I'm wrong
- the service has not been fully integrated into the mirror's team
workflow - ex. a recent change to ftpsync makes httpredir believe
mirrors do not handle some files correctly
- the service has not been fully integrated into the mirror's team
umbrella, notably contact addresses as weasel correctly noted
- the service has been widely welcome by users - a single address
- the service has superseded similar services: geomirror.d.n, cdn.d.n
- no other service exists that could supersede httpredir while
retaining control over it
- no other read-to-use solution exists that could supersede httpredir
without a significant cost (time)

(all points are TTBOMK and IMHO)

Given the above, I believe it to be in the best interest of the
project to further attempt to improve the service rather than shutting
it down.

What I propose is:
1. to fix the recent regressions and perform some maintenance on the
service in an attempt[1] to reduce the user-visible errors. Before the
end of April.
2. define the next steps towards improving the service - can be done
in an open way in the mirrors ML. Starting today, with no ending date.
3. organise a sprint in order to ensure that time is available to work
on the service. Perhaps during SunCamp, as people such as weasel also
appear to be interested in participating - so let's say end of May.

[1] as of this time there's no metric for this

Do people agree to the above?

PS. Regarding mirrorbrain, I can go into further details as to why it
doesn't fit our use case but I think it's orthogonal to the discussion
here.
It's a great project, Peter Pöml has done a great work, and httpredir
is inspired on it.

Cheers,
-- 
Raphael Geissert - Debian Developer
www.debian.org - get.debian.net

Thread

shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org> - 2016-04-12 09:10 +0200
  Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> - 2016-04-12 09:40 +0200
    Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org> - 2016-04-12 10:00 +0200
      Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Cord Beermann <cord@debian.org> - 2016-04-12 12:30 +0200
      Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Christian Rohmann <crohmann@netcologne.de> - 2016-04-12 13:00 +0200
        Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> - 2016-04-13 10:30 +0200
          Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Christian Rohmann <crohmann@netcologne.de> - 2016-04-14 10:00 +0200
            Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org> - 2016-04-14 11:10 +0200
              Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org> - 2016-04-14 12:10 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? David Kalnischkies <david@kalnischkies.de> - 2016-04-14 15:40 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> - 2016-04-15 06:50 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Ondřej Surý <ondrej@sury.org> - 2016-04-25 14:30 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> - 2016-04-25 14:50 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Ondřej Surý <ondrej@sury.org> - 2016-04-25 15:10 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? David Kalnischkies <david@kalnischkies.de> - 2016-04-25 15:50 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org> - 2016-04-25 17:40 +0200
              Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? anarcat <anarcat@orangeseeds.org> - 2016-04-14 17:00 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> - 2016-04-15 03:20 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> - 2016-04-15 04:00 +0200
                Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> - 2016-04-15 07:00 +0200
          Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Christian Rohmann <crohmann@netcologne.de> - 2016-04-14 14:00 +0200
            Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> - 2016-04-14 17:00 +0200
              Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Christian Rohmann <crohmann@netcologne.de> - 2016-04-19 13:50 +0200
    Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> - 2016-04-12 18:30 +0200
  Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Lucas Nussbaum <lucas@debian.org> - 2016-04-12 10:50 +0200
  Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Raphael Geissert <geissert@debian.org> - 2016-04-12 14:00 +0200
    Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> - 2016-04-12 15:10 +0200
    Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org> - 2016-04-12 15:30 +0200
      Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Raphael Geissert <geissert@debian.org> - 2016-04-13 14:30 +0200
    Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Donald Norwood <dnorwood@portalus.com> - 2016-04-12 19:20 +0200
      Re: shutting down httpredir.debian.org? Donald Norwood <dnorwood@portalus.com> - 2016-04-12 22:50 +0200

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