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Last name of the author of the GNU Manifesto

Revision 76 as of 2018-12-26 02:12:57

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ClintonEbadi

I am Clinton Ebadi. I am the reluctant President of the coop (someone has to do it), and the current lead sysadmin / DomTool maintainer / lo-fi AdamChlipala replacement.

1. Board Statements

See /BoardStatements

2. General Coop Goals

Unstructured musing on when/what I think the coop ought to be.

3. Contact

4. Websites

5. Immediate Tasks

6. Admin Stuff

6.1. fastcgi setup notes

Notes to self about configuring fastcgi for at least php

http://httpd.apache.org/mod_fcgid/mod/mod_fcgid.html

6.1.1. Packaging

6.1.2. Problems with openafs

Old Content: This section is from before fastcgi was implemented. Leaving so I might remember one day to try the idea of adding an suexec hook to apache.

The mod_fcgid spawner runs in its own process pool and therefore without tokens or the ability to acquire tokens for processes it launches. Thus, all fcgi processes must be wrapped to avoid surprising behavior. The FcgidWrapper directive is not very expressive: the "wrapper" is the fastcgi application that is launched and then passed any files matching the extension using SCRIPT_NAME. A wrapper wrapping script is needed to grab tokens before launching the actual wrapper, and just using {Add,Set}Handler fcgid-script won't work as expected (users could of course arrange for programs run that way to grab tokens manually).

mod_wsgid and mod_cgid have identical problems. Inspecting the apache source code makes it appear that it would be possible to fix the situation generally by adding a pre/post suexec hook. The process managers for mod_cgid/mod_fcgid/mod_wsgid are forked from the primordial apache process which I understand has all modules loaded. Modules like mod_auth_kerb and mod_waklog could then inject tickets/tokens/etc. into the environment from which external processes were spawned using the suexec hooks.

6.1.2.1. Actual Implementation Notes

create-user generates wrapper scripts per user. If we turned off suexec uid/gid checking, there could be a single wrapper-wrapper (perhaps implement SuExecForceUserGroup {on|off} as a global server config option?)

php5 fastcgi works fine and will be mandatory for debian stretch servers.

fastScriptAlias works for the case of a single fcgi program handling an entire path, and uses Directory + Files internally.

6.2. Improve SSL Experience

6.2.1. The Problem

6.2.2. A possible solution

Replace use_cert and sslCertificateChainFile with a single cert function, and store key + cert + intermediates all in one file. May still need to split out the intermediates with Apache, but each certificate can just have its own copy that is automatically used (I suspect there's negative value to allowing members to use arbitrary intermediate certs that admins have to keep up to date and grant permissions to independently). 

extern type your_cert;
extern val cert : your_cert -> ssl
(* SSL = cert "mydomain.pem"; *)

6.2.3. Portal

Certificate requests should also include intermediates, ca scripts will need some updates as well.

The portal request page should display all certs a user is permitted to use already, their common name, and their expiration date.

6.2.4. Managing Certificates

Needs Updating Not very fleshed out, also does not consider how we're going to manage letsencrypt certs

Upon installation, certificates should be recorded in a database that stores (filename, type, subject, expiration) (where type = user | intermediate). Removal, naturally, should remove the database entry and files from all web servers.

This information could then be used to present information on a member's certs on the portal page, and make requesting CA certs easier.

6.3. etc.

6.4. Website

(create Website bugzilla product and move these there)

6.4.1. Wiki

6.5. domtool plans

6.5.1. restricted modules for apache

Inspiration: hcoop.net's vhost is non generated by domtool, and only because it enabled mod_userdir

Idea: have a set of restricted modules that can only be used by superusers. Easiest to just have another ad-hoc list setting in config for domtool. ACL example: hcoop priv www, www priv overloaded to also allow use of restricted module.

Problems: no way currently to restrict access to actions or lib files.

Deficiences: priv www is a blunt instrument. priv system in general is mediocre. It might be nice to be able to do something like hcoop priv www apache-module/userdir mail/hopper.hcoop.net (i.e. access to all www nodes, access to the userdir module only, access to hopper). Keys gain some hierarchy polluting the purity of the triples db, but it is already a bit polluted... is there any difference between adding hierarchy to priv keys and the existing implicit hierarchies in domains and paths?

Solution: might be overkill just for mod_userdir, if it looks like minimal additional code is required perhaps implement hierarchical privs (extending www and mail privs to support limiting to particular admin hosts) and restricted apache modules.

6.5.2. Pattern Matching and New Types

A vague idea that may prove to be unworkable. I think at least implementing list matching in domtool would be quite useful. Abstraction syntax would be need to be improved to support multiple clauses. case would also be needed to make it useful. Syntax would be easy enough to add except for having to deal with runtime non-exhaustive match exceptions (perhaps requiring exhaustive matches and living with the limitation). Ambitious, probably time consuming, might require adding tail call optimization to the interpreter. Example: 

(* A map operator *)
val map = \action -> \list -> 
  case list of head::tail =>
    begin
      action head;
      map action tail;
    end
     | [] => Skip;
(* Alias a list of email addresses to *)
val multiAlias = \sources -> \target -> map (\source -> emailAlias source target) sources;

I probably lack the skill/willpower in the short term... alternative idea, just implement a loop primitive in SML and magic the types away by making it a primitive construct (defining its type on DomTool/LanguageReference). Maybe implement polymorphic actions if adding then is secretly easy: 

extern val map : (('a -> 'b) -> ['a]) -> [^Root];

(* Alias a list of email addresses to *)
val multiAlias = \sources -> \target -> map (\source -> emailAlias source target) sources;

Most of the gain, none of the pain.

New types: even more ambitious. Supporting at least tuples or named records, and perhaps a construct for querying the domtool acl database. Idea would be to use it for something like the firewall, where only primitive "generate one firewall rule" constructs would be needed, and then user firewalls could be constructed by querying the ports available to each user and matching/looping.

One pattern that has recurred in domtool is that of a special purpose client + server commands that operates on a simple database. E.g. spamassassin prefs, vmail users, firewall rules, and the domtool acl database. It would be useful to have a generalized serialize/unserialize sets of sml records library, perhaps with a generalized/queryable tuples database built on top of the primitive raw-records database. Even better would be to allow databases to be exposed to domtool, and simple queries performed on them. Maybe. 

val writeRecord' : [('record ->

6.5.3. ip / ipv4 / ipv6

There are a few places (mostly apache) where it would be great to be able to interchange ip and ipv6 addresses. But there's no way to subtype in domtool (except for refining base int and string).

It's been shoehorned in for now (always requiring a node to have an ipv6 address), but this can be a bit awkward (e.g. webAtIp requires that an ipv4 and ipv6 address be provided).

Also might make sense to be able to pass an array of IPs in a few spots instead of just fixing it at one ipv4 and one ipv6 address per WebPlace. you can just pass more than one WebPlace already.

7. Board Stuff

8. etc

Barely formed sentences.

8.1. tt-rss at hcoop

Our postgresql does not use passwords. The installer needs a single tweak to remove the required attribute of the database password to install.

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