I do think that there's a tension between the needs of first-timers and production users. First-timers are already stymied by the lack of CORS by default, and if we remove the Admin party from the default installation, it's going to be even more impenetrable for them.
This is why for PouchDB Server we not only made Admin Party the default, but also completely-open CORS. If I were to go one step further, I might even make it bind to 0.0.0.0. That has bitten me many many times before on a fresh install. Is this something that can be done with Docker? Or maybe by adding presets to the config UI? (Think Babel presets - e.g. "playground mode" or "production-ready".) Cheers, Nolan On Sun, Apr 17, 2016 at 12:16 PM, Jan Lehnardt <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On 17 Apr 2016, at 16:43, Paul Hammant <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > I wasn't being snide, or insulting > > I’m glad to hear that you didn’t mean to be snide. > > > If I > > wanted to write "I find the security system poorly documented, > > can someone explain this to me" (your suggestion), I would have written > it > > as "I find the documentation of the security could be expanded for > newbies, can > > someone explain this to me" and avoid a reference to "poorly". > > > > I'm an Apache member - 'hammant' - and wouldn't do what you're claiming > I'm > > doing. > > I’m not claiming anything, I’m just telling you how this reads to me. > > Best > Jan > -- > > > > > > - Paul > > > > On Sun, Apr 17, 2016 at 8:24 AM, Jan Lehnardt <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> > >>> On 17 Apr 2016, at 05:09, Paul Hammant <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> > >>> (Cultural ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Considered_harmful) > >>> > >>> So AdminParty is fun for there 2 minute "hey this stuff is great" tour > of > >>> CouchDB, but it leaves me (and others) worried that we don't know the > 52 > >>> specialist knowledge things to do to lock down a couch install > >> completely. > >>> You know: 443-only, a top-level administrator, sub administrators, > >> regular > >>> accounts, different read vs write permissions, etc etc. We can't > imagine > >>> going live with a CouchDB solution without that, and it makes us think > we > >>> should look for other technologies when there is no cohesive 100% > >> dev-team > >>> endorsed page on how to close down the party once and for all. Sooooo - > >> *if > >>> that page exists, I can't find it*. > >> > >> > >>> Is the comummunity even in agreement - is it changes to default.ini, > >> local.ini > >>> (server side), or is it a series of curl statements over the wire (and > >> why)? > >> > >> No need to be snide about this. A “Why are there two ways to configure > >> CouchDB?” would have sufficed. > >> > >> CouchDB has a config system. It is persisted in two .ini files. You can > >> change settings by editing local.ini and [re]starting CouchDB or without > >> restarting CouchDB using curl. The latter is rather beneficial in > >> production > >> systems that don’t want to incur downtimes. > >> > >> Changes done at runtime are stored in local.ini. When you install a > newer > >> version of CouchDB new config variables can appear in default.ini. If > the > >> install procedure finds an existing local.ini it will not replace it, so > >> local changes (hence the name) survive software upgrades. > >> > >> As Bob pointed out, there is a security consideration with ini vs. curl: > >> > >> If you were to start a CouchDB instance and then add an administrator > via > >> curl, there is an ever so slight chance that someone else gets there > before > >> you. The exact scenario is somewhat convoluted, so I won’t bore you with > >> it. > >> Suffice it to say, creating an admin in local.ini before the first > launch > >> of CouchDB completely avoids said issue. > >> > >> * * * > >> > >> If you don’t feel confident using CouchDB then I suggest you look for > >> alternative technology, or ask someone nicely to explain this to you, > >> but pressuring the dev team with an somewhat insulting email is not > >> appreciated here. Again, a “I find the security system poorly > documented, > >> can someone explain this to me?” would have been much more productive. > >> > >> > >> Best > >> Jan > >> -- > >> Apache CouchDB PMC Chair > >> http://couchdb.apache.org/conduct.html > >> > >> > >> > > -- > Professional Support for Apache CouchDB: > https://neighbourhood.ie/couchdb-support/ > > -- Nolan Lawson nolanlawson.com github.com/nolanlawson
