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sm-discuss - Re: [SM-Discuss] Basesystem Cache files on Mirror

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  • From: Ondra Tomecka <otom7630 AT lucy.troja.mff.cuni.cz>
  • To: Eric Sandall <eric AT sandall.us>
  • Cc: sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [SM-Discuss] Basesystem Cache files on Mirror
  • Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 18:27:28 +0200 (CEST)

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005, Eric Sandall wrote:

> Quoting "David Michael Leo Brown Jr." <dmlb2000 AT excite.com>:
> > Many times, either in the process of helping get smgl users up to pure
> > 64bit
> > systems with x86-64 or trying to sort out compile errors with basesystem,
> > I
> > have
> > had to offer my cache files to help fix their machines.
> >
> > Many times problems with basesystem can cascade into greater problems that
> > cause
> > the system to be completely unusable. The fact that we allow users to do
> > this is
> > one of the things I love about sourcemage. However, I think we should
> > offer
> > a way
> > for users to get at least their basesystem back from cache files without
> > having to
> > either find the cd or download and burn the cd. Also, the cd doesn't
> > always
> > come with the latest versions of spells, in some instances this would
> > force
> > users to
> > reinstall the basesystem from the cd just to get something workable (ie
> > glibc
> > being out of date on the cd vs. the one they might have installed).
> >
> > I would like to see ppc, x86-64, sparc, i386 and i686 cache files on the
> > mirror.
> > I suggest both i386 and i686 because of the number of people that have
> > i686
> > or
> > greater machines.
> >
> > I will offer my x86-64 basesystem spells for the mirror if they are
> > needed,
> > however my other machines compile for pentium[34] so they won't do.
>
> I like this idea. We can put the tarballs under
> http://download.sourcemage.org/cache/<architecture>/ (e.g.
> http://download.sourcemage.org/cache/i386/). I'd like to request volunteers
> to
> build these caches and that all spells for this have all optional
> dependencies
> off (so that we have just the bare-minimum needed and don't require people
> to
> install extra packages for a quickfix).
>
> Luckily Sorcery has this feature called install_root[0] that will allow
> anyone
> to do this without having to rebuild their system. :) Just set it up to use
> /opt/smgl for INSTALL_ROOT and STATE_ROOT and you're set.
>
> One problem I due see with this, however, is that we'd have to keep these
> binaries up-to-date. That may not be fun.
>
> Required architectures:
> x86: i386, i686
> x86-64: x86-64, x86-32
> ppc: g3, g4
>
> Anyone see problems with that list? We may have to drop i386 and do i486 as
> i386
> cannot do glibc+NPTL.
>

There should probably also some distinction for higher cpu-specific
optimization flags, as spells compiled with -msse2 may not work on
pentium3 cpu, but both of them are marked as i686. Or do you think it
would be better to compile spells specifically without those higher-level
optimizations for this tarball cache?

And don't forget that this has potential for a huge security hole, when
some malicious user contributes tarball with modified binary. How are we
supposed to detect such a thing, or prevent it at all? Not that I think
such tarball cache is bad idea, it would save me quite a lot of time
sometimes, but still this security concern is a big one.

Andy






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