Feature Freeze Exception: Tahoe-LAFS

[Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn]

Tahoe-LAFS is a Free Software, Open Source cloud storage system which
offers "provider-independent security". That means you can use
Tahoe-LAFS to store your data in the cloud without giving up your
privacy and security to the provider of the cloud. This unique security
property is described in more detail here:
http://allmydata.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/about.html

Tahoe-LAFS is mature and stable software -- it has been in continuous
production use by several different user bases for more than a year,
and has an excellent track record for being reliable. It is developed
by an active open source developer community. The project home page
is http://allmydata.org .

Since Tahoe-LAFS offers unique features in the field of Cloud Storage,
which is complementary to Karmic Koala's Cloud emphasis, and since it
is already packaged and reviewed, I ask for a Feature Freeze Exception
to upload Tahoe-LAFS into Karmic. Tahoe-LAFS and its dependencies
were already reviewed and approved in the run-up to the Karmic Feature
Freeze, but unfortunately a one-and-a-half-hour delay in a Debian
batch process prevented it from being uploaded before the Freeze
deadline. (The history of uploads of Tahoe-LAFS and its dependencies
into Ubuntu during the Karmic Feature Freeze process is appended
below.)

To include Tahoe-LAFS in Karmic requires syncing the current
release version of python-foolscap from Debian, thus upgrading the
version of foolscap in Ubuntu from 0.3.2 to 0.4.2+dfsg-1.

Here is why we think this will not cause regressions in Karmic or be
disruptive to the release process:

Tahoe-LAFS is a well-behaved, well-tested Python userspace app. It
doesn't have a kernel module, it doesn't start a daemon on startup,
and it doesn't require the system to allocate a specific port number
to it. When it is running (because it has been explicitly started by
the user) it uses an acceptably low level of CPU and memory (and we
have measurements and graphs to prove it.)

The only other package that would have to be changed to include
Tahoe-LAFS is python-foolscap which would need to be upgraded from
0.3.2 (released 2008-10-14) to the current release, 0.4.2 (released
2009-06-16). The changes in python-foolscap from 0.3.2 to 0.4.2 are
all backwards-compatible changes, as documented in the foolscap
ChangeLog [6] and NEWS file [7]. There is only one package in Karmic
which depends on foolscap -- ipython [5], which uses foolscap only for
its parallel computation features. There are no known problems using
ipython with foolscap 0.4.2.

Please accept Tahoe-LAFS into Karmic! Tahoe-LAFS is super cool and
would make an excellent addition to the Karmic Koala repertoire!

Regards,

Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn
member of the Tahoe-LAFS development team

------- uploads and reviews of Tahoe-LAFS and its dependencies

Dustin Kirkland and Iulian reviewed Tahoe-LAFS [1] and approved it
into the Karmic queue, but then it was dequeued because Karmic didn't
have the three dependencies that Tahoe-LAFS needed. We subsequently
got two of those dependencies into the Karmic queue: pycryptopp
(synced from Debian thanks to Piotr and Dustin) [2] and zfec (REVUed
and uploaded thanks to Brian, RainCT, and Iulian) [3]. The remaining
dependency, foolscap, was already in Ubuntu at version 0.3.2, and we
upgraded it to 0.4.2 in Debian and then synced it to Ubuntu thanks to
Brian, Piotr, and Artur [4]. Unfortunately there was a delay in
syncing it which took us past the Feature Freeze deadline, so foolscap
0.4.2 is not in the Karmic Queue.

------- references

[1] http://revu.ubuntuwire.com/p/tahoe-lafs
[2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/289431
[3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/289430
[4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/foolscap/+bug/419510
[5] http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/ipython
[6] http://foolscap.lothar.com/trac/browser/ChangeLog?rev=571%3A230314409442
[7] http://foolscap.lothar.com/trac/browser/NEWS?rev=571%3A230314409442

[Nicola Ferralis (feranick)]

Thanks for taking the time to submit this report. Please make sure you followed all the required steps required for granting an exception of a package after the feature freeze deadline.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreezeExceptionProcess

Thanks for helping in making Ubuntu better.

[StefanPotyra (sistpoty)]

@Dustin: Do you want it in, or do you think it's too late for that already?

@ScottK: I guess that's your domain ;).

[Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (zooko)]

There is a separate ticket to sync the new version of foolscap: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/foolscap/+bug/420270 .

[Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland)]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 2:24 PM,
StefanPotyra<email address hidden> wrote:
> @Dustin: Do you want it in, or do you think it's too late for that
> already?

Well, it's a little late, but these guys have been in the queue since
before Feature Freeze (albeit just before feature freeze).

I haven't any more time to dedicate to the review and/or packaging
myself, which I why I pointed these guys at the greater MOTU
community.

As for "wanting" it, in principle, I think it would be a nice thing to
have in Ubuntu.

:-Dustin

[Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (zooko)]

Dustin and Iulian Udrea already reviewed Tahoe-LAFS, and then Brian Warner uploaded a new package of Tahoe-LAFS which "fixes the maintainer field, and relaxes the pycryptopp requirement to 0.5.14": http://revu.ubuntuwire.com/p/tahoe-lafs . Do we need any further review of Tahoe-LAFS?

Zfec and Pycryptopp are already in the Karmic Queue: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+queue

Syncing Foolscap-0.4.2 has two +1 in ticket comments, from StefanPotyra and Iulian: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/foolscap/+bug/420270

So, it appears that it is sufficiently reviewed and the Masters of the Universe are willing to make an exception to the Feature Freeze to let it in. :-)

[Iulian Udrea (iulian)]

FFe acknowledged. I'd very much like to see this in Karmic.

Scott: What is your opinion about this?

Iulian
--
Iulian Udrea
<email address hidden>

[Scott Kitterman (kitterman)]

Since we're about cloud stuff this cycle, I think we should have this. FFe approved. Go ahead.

[Brian Warner (warner)]

I've updated the foolscap sync-request (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/foolscap/+bug/419510) .. hopefully I subscribed the right people.

zfec and pycryptopp are still sitting in +queue, I don't know if that impacts the process or not, or if I need to do anything to help get them past that stage.

[Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (zooko)]

foolscap-0.4.2 is now in Karmic http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/python-foolscap . zfec is too: http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/python-zfec . Now we just need pycryptopp. Oh, it is in the queue: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+queue . So now we just need someone (Iulian?) to re-upload Tahoe-LAFS! :-)

[Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (zooko)]

pycryptopp-0.5.14 is in Karmic. Now all the dependencies are in Karmic. Tahoe-LAFS as uploaded by Brian Warner requires pycryptopp >= 0.5.14, so it is ready to go in: http://revu.ubuntuwire.com/revu1-incoming/tahoe-lafs-0908270354/tahoe-lafs-1.5.0/debian/control

[Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (zooko)]

Okay, Tahoe-LAFS is in Karmic. We can close this bug report now.