Re: [OT] CVSUP (was "Re: Was: Re: Why This Infinite Loop??")

2006-08-22 Thread Garrett Cooper

On Aug 22, 2006, at 12:19 AM, Erik Trulsson wrote:


On Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 06:38:46AM +0100, Matthew Seaman wrote:

Lowell Gilbert wrote:

Garrett Cooper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:


Gerard Seibert wrote:



IMHO, it might be a lot easier for him to use portsnap. Especially
if he is not familiar with the FBSD ports system. Just my opinion
though.



   CVSUP isn't that difficult IMHO to learn, and is a better, more
efficient way to download the ports Makefiles.


In what way?  For typical applications, lower bandwidth usage is
supposedly an advantage of portsnap.

   It will take him  
all of
10-20 minutes to configure if he reads the documentation and  
uses the

example file.


I would think so.  And it can be used with arbitrary cvs trees,
including the FreeBSD source tree.  On the other hand, it doesn't
come in the FreeBSD base system, and it doesn't sign the updates.


But csup(1) is in the base system for values of base system equal to
6.1-STABLE or better.  csup(1) is cvsup(1) reimplemented in plain C
and apart from the graphical display stuff is a drop in replacement
for cvsup(1).


Not quite a drop in replacement.  csup(1) does not (yet) support  
CVS mode

which is used to maintain a local copy of the repository.


I did a bit of searching and it appears that my thoughts on how CVSUP  
is implemented are slightly skewed. From the portsnap developer's page:


-CVSup is insecure. The protocol uses no encryption or signing, and  
any attacker who can intercept the connection can insert arbitrary  
data into the tree you are updating.
-CVSup isn't end-to-end. Related to the previous point, this means  
that anyone who can compromise a CVSup mirror can feed arbitrary data  
to the people who are using that mirror.
-CVSup isn't designed for frequent small updates. While CVSup is very  
good at distributing CVS trees, and is very efficient for updating a  
tree which has been significantly changed (eg, by a month or more of  
commits), it transmits a list of all the files in the tree, which  
makes it quite inefficient if only a few files have changed.
-CVSup uses a custom protocol. This can cause problems for people  
behind firewalls -- outgoing connections on port 5999 need to be  
permitted -- and it needs a heavyweight server (cvsupd).


The first and fourth points are the ones I noted as the flaw in my  
original argument of the overall operation of CVSUP vs portsnap. I  
thought that CVSUP actually used the CVS protocol to transfer data,  
which can encrypt data using SSH tunneling but it actually doesn't  
and is very insecure =\. Noting that portsnap fetches all files via  
fetch with ssl support enabled as well by quickly reading through the  
portsnap script, it is much more secure than CVSUP is.


The only thing to note is that you still need to use CVSUP to update  
your base package sources, as there isn't a compressed, fetching  
equivalent like portsnap available for the sources.


Although this would have been more efficient for beno because it  
sounds like his ports tree hasn't been updated in ages, portsnap  
would be better to use in the future for updating his ports tree.


-Garrett
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Re: [OT] CVSUP (was "Re: Was: Re: Why This Infinite Loop??")

2006-08-22 Thread Erik Trulsson
On Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 06:38:46AM +0100, Matthew Seaman wrote:
> Lowell Gilbert wrote:
> > Garrett Cooper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > 
> >> Gerard Seibert wrote:
> > 
> >>> IMHO, it might be a lot easier for him to use portsnap. Especially
> >>> if he is not familiar with the FBSD ports system. Just my opinion
> >>> though.
> > 
> >>CVSUP isn't that difficult IMHO to learn, and is a better, more
> >> efficient way to download the ports Makefiles.
> > 
> > In what way?  For typical applications, lower bandwidth usage is
> > supposedly an advantage of portsnap.
> > 
> >>It will take him all of
> >> 10-20 minutes to configure if he reads the documentation and uses the
> >> example file.
> > 
> > I would think so.  And it can be used with arbitrary cvs trees,
> > including the FreeBSD source tree.  On the other hand, it doesn't
> > come in the FreeBSD base system, and it doesn't sign the updates.
> 
> But csup(1) is in the base system for values of base system equal to
> 6.1-STABLE or better.  csup(1) is cvsup(1) reimplemented in plain C
> and apart from the graphical display stuff is a drop in replacement
> for cvsup(1).

Not quite a drop in replacement.  csup(1) does not (yet) support CVS mode
which is used to maintain a local copy of the repository.




-- 

Erik Trulsson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Re: [OT] CVSUP (was "Re: Was: Re: Why This Infinite Loop??")

2006-08-21 Thread Matthew Seaman
Lowell Gilbert wrote:
> Garrett Cooper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 
>> Gerard Seibert wrote:
> 
>>> IMHO, it might be a lot easier for him to use portsnap. Especially
>>> if he is not familiar with the FBSD ports system. Just my opinion
>>> though.
> 
>>CVSUP isn't that difficult IMHO to learn, and is a better, more
>> efficient way to download the ports Makefiles.
> 
> In what way?  For typical applications, lower bandwidth usage is
> supposedly an advantage of portsnap.
> 
>>It will take him all of
>> 10-20 minutes to configure if he reads the documentation and uses the
>> example file.
> 
> I would think so.  And it can be used with arbitrary cvs trees,
> including the FreeBSD source tree.  On the other hand, it doesn't
> come in the FreeBSD base system, and it doesn't sign the updates.

But csup(1) is in the base system for values of base system equal to
6.1-STABLE or better.  csup(1) is cvsup(1) reimplemented in plain C
and apart from the graphical display stuff is a drop in replacement
for cvsup(1).

Cheers,

Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.   7 Priory Courtyard
  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate
  Kent, CT11 9PW



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Re: [OT] CVSUP (was "Re: Was: Re: Why This Infinite Loop??")

2006-08-21 Thread Lowell Gilbert
Garrett Cooper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> Gerard Seibert wrote:

>> IMHO, it might be a lot easier for him to use portsnap. Especially
>> if he is not familiar with the FBSD ports system. Just my opinion
>> though.

>CVSUP isn't that difficult IMHO to learn, and is a better, more
> efficient way to download the ports Makefiles.

In what way?  For typical applications, lower bandwidth usage is
supposedly an advantage of portsnap.

>It will take him all of
> 10-20 minutes to configure if he reads the documentation and uses the
> example file.

I would think so.  And it can be used with arbitrary cvs trees,
including the FreeBSD source tree.  On the other hand, it doesn't
come in the FreeBSD base system, and it doesn't sign the updates.
-- 
Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area
http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/
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Re: [OT] CVSUP (was "Re: Was: Re: Why This Infinite Loop??")

2006-08-21 Thread Gerard Seibert
On Monday 21 August 2006 15:02, Garrett Cooper wrote:
>     CVSUP isn't that difficult IMHO to learn, and is a better, more
> efficient way to download the ports Makefiles. It will take him all of
> 10-20 minutes to configure if he reads the documentation and uses the
> example file.

I am always willing to learn something new. How is it more efficient at 
downloading the port's Makefiles? I agree that the first time you 
run 'portsnap' it might take twenty minutes to fetch and extract the files. 
However, after that it only requires a fetch and update to complete the job. 
It appears, to me anyway, to run at least as quick as cvsup plus I do not 
have to rebuild the index. If he runs cvsup I believe he has to rebuild the 
index, or am I mistaken?

In any case, he has to use one method or the other or he will never get his 
system updated.


-- 
Gerard Seibert
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Every man takes the limits of his own field
of vision for the limits of the world.

Schopenhauer


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