Silfreed.net

We've been working on getting Mercurial ready to use at Mozdev for awhile now; it turns out there's a lot to do to offer a new VCS for a hosting provider that's only offered CVS for 7 years:

• Write admin interfaces for selecting a project's repository and setting up new hg repositories
• Write a tool to log hg commits, make sure project activity is also based on these logs, and make sure places that reported CVS commits can also report hg commits (the source.html page on projects and the RSS feed).
• Setup the web interface and repositories and get new SSL certs to cover the domain
• Update documentation

We're almost ready to release this in production; we just have a final round of testing to go through. With that in mind, there's still some caveats to our Mercurial offering that might disappoint some people:

• CVS is still necessary for maintaining the website and downloads (fixing this is on our roadmap)
• Projects' source information page needs updated by the PO to include information on Mercurial
• We weren't planning on removing the old sources from CVS and we don't have a mechanism for locking CVS, so it might slightly confusing to new users or contributors as to where to get the canonical source for a project if they switch to from CVS to Mercurial

Even with these things in mind, we're still very excited to offer this to our projects like our Mozilla brethern. Hopefully in the near future this list will be much fuller.

Mozdev has long offered free source hosting, but along with that we offer a number of other features that are important to extension developers such as mirroring and distribution and secure installations and updates.

Mozdev has been working hard to try to prepare for the Firefox 3 release. We were able to keep our server up during the entire event and ended up being surprised by where the traffic was going.

From previous Firefox 2.0.0.* updates we were used to getting swamped with update requests when lots of users restarted Firefox within a short period of time. We didn't expect that so many people would be looking to our Brazillian Firefox translation project for Firefox 3 news!

Comparing the previous Tuesady and Wednesday (6/10 & 6/11) to the Firefox 3 release (6/17 & 6/18) (like filgtar did), I'd like to take a look at hits, update requests, and downloads

Our hits for the previous Tuesday and Wednesday are pretty typical; ~5.3M/day. We saw a 66% increase in hits on release day and an 87% increase the next day.

Our updates requests (when Firefox checks for an update, not when it downloads a file) are also fairly steady; ~2.3M/day. We didn't see as nearly a big increase in update requests - a 4% increase on Tuesday and 19% increase on Wednesday. This is most likely due to most Firefox 3 installs being new installs and not updates from a beta.

Our downloads are typically fairly erratic, but just looking at these 4 days we have an average of of ~56k downloads/day the previous week and we see a 48% increase on release day, an a 99% increase on the day after!

While Mozdev may not be as active as AMO is, we do have a thriving community here and we're continuing to work on adding new features to help extension developers out.

I've been at Mozdev for a full year now. This was a big step for me personally as well as for Mozdev; there was lots of trepidation from both parties, for a number of reasons:

• I was Mozdev's first full-time employee (and without a formal office, all interviews were over the phone)
• This was my first time being a full-time contractor instead of salaried
• There were (and still are) lots of bugs; some old, some important, and they all needed reevaluated to better define their scope and meaning
• There was a large, pre-existing open-source community that I had no experience with. I didn't know how (or if) they would accept me or my work
• The features that were needed at Mozdev were rather large; mostly due to scaling them across many different projects

While the first few months were relatively scary for me while I learned the existing code base and environment (7 years of organic growth!), I was able to begin working on new features almost immediately. Most of what I worked on is on our roadmap, but I also spent a lot of time trying to setup new structures for maintaining code.

One of my biggest challenges this year wasn't developing features for Mozdev, though; it was integrating myself with the existing community. The community of developers and users at Mozdev is amazing and has an incredible breadth of knowledge and background, and I was an outsider coming in to change how they worked on their projects. I've tried hard to make sure changes and prototypes are announced ahead of time and get exposure as well as making myself available to Mozdev users who need support in order to help people get to know me a little better. Being on the front-line for support as well as new features is a new experience for me, and while it's had it's rough moments I think it helps people feel that we're listening to them and that we're here to help.

This past year I've mostly kept my head down trying to learn about the Mozdev community; this year I'd like to get my head up a little more and reach out to the larger Mozilla community so that we can all benefit. I'm sure the upcoming OSCON Conference and Firefox Summit will go a long way toward getting people together so we can brainstorm on how to improve Mozdev and make it a bigger participant in the Mozilla community.

It's been a great year, and I'm very glad that I took the chance on jumping into an environment I knew nothing about and that Mozdev chose to take a chance on me. I'm very thankful to be able to continue to help the Mozdev and Mozilla communities to grow and look forward to the next year and what it will bring.

Participants: davidwboswell, (David Boswell), gjm (Gerry Murphy), silfreed (Doug Warner)
Community participants: JesperHansen

Discussion was held publically in #mozdev

Discussed developer priorities

• working on WYSIWYG for Mozdev wiki
• planning on using mediawiki syntax with FCKeditor (noticed DevMo is switching to DekiWiki)
• at ccaygill's prompting (and patch) updated the local.conf documentation
• performed some log analysis of Firefox 3 release traffic
• discussed alternatives to awstats for performing custom stats analysis (no solution found)
• hg was just setup in production; needs tested and then we can open up to projectowners for testing
• once hg is in testing w/ POs I'll be back at working on the wiki and also with new file upload mechanisms

Discussed sysadmin priorities

• some security updates
• mailman upgraded to latest version
• hg setup in production; still needs SSL cert

Web stats/Top 50 page

• stats have caught up
• hits for 2008-06-(17-20) are impressive (FF3 release)

Staging server migration

• mozilla has recently been looking into racking a ton of Mac Minis and OSUOSL just received a shipment of hard drives
• david will ping mozilla again and gjm will get back to OSUOSL

Next meeting July 8th, 2008 @ 15:00 UTC in #mozdev

Semi-busy week with not much to show for it:

• Working on providing a GUI for Mozdev's wiki - For now I think I've settled on using MediaWiki syntax and using FCKeditor. The Drupal module for FCKeditor needs some improvements to support to load different toolbars for different content types (so we can use the mediawiki plugin for wiki pages and the regular toolbar for blogs and other pages). I've submitted a patch that seems to support this, but I'm still working on a way to only load the mediawiki fckeditor plugin only in the wiki profile.
• Documenting more local.conf options
• Performing some log analysis of last week's Firefox release traffic - also discussing alternatives to awstats for performing custom query generation (no solution found yet)

The big thing for this week will be trying to get FCKeditor working with the mediawiki syntax; Independence Day is this Friday for the USA so I'll be offline then.

Participants: gjm (Gerry Murphy), silfreed (Doug Warner)
Community participants: ccaygill

Discussion was held publically in #mozdev

Discussed developer priorities

• finished new bugzilla bug entry form
• helped with Firefox 3 server load (adding additional caches, mostly)
• fixed XPI sorting on project overview page
• working on improving wiki formatting at Mozdev
• investigating integrating Mailman and Drupal Forums
• updated VCS log to include link to a file's history

Discussed sysadmin priorities

• no updates, under the weather
• tanker's out on leave right now; when he get's back they'll work on the OS update on vebzom and then rework the plan for production

Web stats/Top 50 page

• ccaygill has been working on mycroft to reduce hits to old plugins that won't have updates
• munin outages/gaps are related to stats maching blocking on something the stats machine despite it being idle; needs more investigations
• gjm has begun looking at firewall connection table to catch bots and evil users rather than just relying on apache logs

Staging server migration

• no updates

Next meeting July 1st, 2008 @ 15:00 UTC in #mozdev

Getting back into the swing of things after vacation.

• Updating Mozdev bugzilla bug entry form - this is ready to go into production to help making requests to Mozdev easier
• Handling Firefox 3 release server load - the Firefox 3 release caused lots of additional web traffic to mozdev.org in a number of ways; people trying to get news about Firefox 3 (some projects host translations of Mozilla software) and additional update requests for extensions and search plugins caused by lots of people restarting their browsers in a short period of time. I added caching to a number of pages during this time to try to reduce the impact on the server.
• Fixed XPI file sorting on Project Overview page
• Trying to improve wiki formatting at Mozdev - I'm evaluating both using straight HTML for the wiki as well as FCKeditor w/ a mediawiki plugin. I'm leaning towards the latter right now, but the various plugins need some work.
• Investigating linking Mailman and Forums - Currently the plugins require a separate email account to check for new messages and I'm not sure who should be responsible for setting up/maintaining this account (Mozdev or the project owner).
• Updated VCS log to include link to a file's log history

This week I plan to continue working on improving Mozdev's wiki editing capability and look towards how pam_mysql can be configured to allow file uploads at Mozdev.

Our recent trip to Lake Raystown:
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/trips/Raystown+2008/

Events:
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Jocelyns+1st+Birthday+Party/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Dougs+28th+Birthday+Party+at+Sh...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Easter+Egg+Hunt+at+South+Newton...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Easter+Presents+at+Warners/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Swimming+Lessons+with+Mom/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Pre-Fathers+Day/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Summertime+Playing+at+Warners/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Swimming+at+Parents/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/2008+LAN+Party+at+Bitleap/

Hikes:
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/outdoor/Appalatian+Trail+Pivot+Rock/

Things:
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/things/motorized/Deer+Attacks+WRX/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/things/Argo-3+Dell+sc1425/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/things/Dads+Truck+Wheel+Hub+Cover/

Children:
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Pets/Sage+and+Tycho+snuggling+on+...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Baby2/Baby+2+W17/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Easter+Dres...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Bra+on+Head...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/First+day+o...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Eggs+in+Shi...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Lacross/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Naked+Hiney...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Shinguards+...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Sleeping+on...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Ella+Jones+...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Mom+Reading...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Tiffany+and...

We're looking to improve the experience of editing pages in our Wiki, and I'm wondering if we should just ditch "wiki" syntax and just support HTML and use a nice in-browser HTML editor.

It should be easy for us to continue to support CamelCase and square brackets to link to other wiki pages, so what else would be missing (other than an annoying wiki syntax)? Does anyone have any experience on going this route?

Participants: davidwboswell (David Boswell), gjm (Gerry Murphy), silfreed (Doug Warner)
Community participants: ccaygill

Discussion was held publically in #mozdev

Discussed developer priorities

• finished up changes to simpler bug entry form
• increased timeout on new Mozdev pages that require login (file managment, project tag editing)
• wrote Mercurial documentation for Mozdev
• Firefox 3 release is today

Discussed sysadmin priorities

• mailman upgrade is in the works; all our custom changes have been included in the new version so we won't be running a hacked version anymore
• looking into using snort for detecting bot attacks on the server; not sure if itwill be feasible or not
• ssl cert w/ multiple domains should be good to install

Web stats/Top 50 page

• still somewhat behind; needs more attention

Staging server migration

• no updates

Adding Drupal/Mailman sync to roadmap

• PO found Drupal modules that should allow integration with Mailman; haven't doneany research yet
• silfreed will look into the integration and we'll update the roadmap if it's more than 1 day's work

Next meeting June 24th, 2008 @ 15:00 UTC in #mozdev

Short week last week due to vacation.

• Working on streamlined Mozdev bug-entry form to help with submitting VCS change requests (and other requests)
• Increased idle timeout on new Mozdev tools
• Writing documentation for requesting and using Mercurial at Mozdev

We're expecting Mercurial to be released soon at Mozdev; we'll be sure to post an update once it's released.

Minutes from mozdev sysadmin meeting on Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Participants: davidwboswell (David Boswell), cdn-work (Chris Neale), gjm (Gerry Murphy), silfreed (Doug Warner)
Community participants: ccaygill, JesperHansen

Discussion was held publically in #mozdev

Discussed developer priorities

• added a new mirror for zurich/switzerland
• documented some module settings that caused problems for a PO
• setup an ad system so we can track stats for sponsor buttons
• updated the /source.html vcs log page to support multiple VCSes
• also updated the template /source.html to refer to more VCS types (commmented out)
• updated hgweb to run from mod_python (3x faster, slightly more memory usage)
• created patch for Apache to get hg setup in production
• working on a new bugzilla entry format to help making requests to mozdev easier
• try to finish up the bugzilla form today and that'll be it before I'm off for vacation this week

Discussed sysadmin priorities

• log rotating is updated, but transfers to stats wasn't working properly so top 50 page is still a little behind
• preparing for an OS update to FreeBSD 7; release on the servers is EOL
• tested out eaccelerator again to prepare for ff3 release; still doesn't work with Mozdev code
• mysql backup was tweaked to keep 3 generations instead of one

Web stats/Top 50 page

• currently a little behind, should be catching up

Staging server migration

• no updates

data retention policy

• privacy policy is fairly clear that voluntarily submitted info (ie, to mailing list or newsgroup) is public
• users don't understand/read that and just want their info removed
• current situtation revolves around a person who wants their email to a listremoved w/ no personally identifiable information
• previous instances where we told a user we would not remove an email resulted in angry responses
• in the future we'll try to educate the user about publically posting to lists and move forward if the user is persistent (while trying to avoid censorship by removing the least amount of data possible)

mercurial rollout timeline

• gjm will try to get things setup in production this week
• silfreed will look over things and test out next week when he's back

ssl certs

• the list of domains in bug#19110 should be good to start
• GoDaddy requires that any changes to the cert be a new certificate
• gjm and davidwboswell will work out details for getting a new cert

Next meeting June 17th, 2008 @ 15:00 UTC in #mozdev

• New mirror for Zurich/Switzerland
• Documented Drupal subscription module dependency on comments module (discovered from user problems)
• Setup ad system for tracking stats for sponsor banners
• Updating VCS log page to support multiple VCSes and updating template source.html page to have links for other VCS types.
• Updated hgweb to run from mod_python using a mod_python/wsgi gateway and some tips from the web ([1], [2])
• Creating patch for staging server Apache config - required pruning out a bunch of other staging work for SVN and a new web viewer for SVN and CVS
• Working on new guided entry bugzilla form to help in submitting requests for Mozdev to do things (like ask for a new VCS).

I'm heading to Raystown Lake (PA) tomorrow, so I don't plan to get too much accomplished this week (some more work on the bugzilla guided entry page, most likely).

Participants: davidwboswell (David Boswell), gjm (Gerry Murphy), silfreed (Doug Warner)
Community participants: JesperHansen, djc

Discussion was held publically in #mozdev

Discussed developer priorities

• OSCon/Firefox Summit planning
• Styling hgweb (still needs some work)
• Sponsor work - Songbird page is now live
• new Multi-VCS log RSS feed
• lots of unit test improvements
• updated feedback page to prefer filing bugs for change requests from project owners
• finished setting up ad system for serving sponsor banners to track statistics
• working on updating the /source.html page and testing mod_wsgi

Discussed sysadmin priorities

• additional bot blocking
• mail stopped over the weekend; problem is identified in amavis but still needs worked on
• some bugs processing
• gjm & silfreed are working on ideas for trapping bots

Web stats/Top 50 page

• top 50 should be updating soon
• old logs were inadvertently removed and will need reprocessed

Staging server migration

• David thinks Mozilla might be busy until after firefox 3 is out
• OSUOSL responded that they're still not ready

per-project web stats

• interest from POs?
• davidwboswell thinks the data would be very useful to POs
• will require a lot of time to get through the backlog; not sure if we have enough CPU

Next meeting June 10th, 2008 @ 15:00 UTC in #mozdev

• OSCon/Firefox Summit planning - got my flights booked and applied for my passport
• Styling hgweb - I'm trying to get our hgweb instance styled better but am running into problems modifying Mercurial themes (maps)
• Sponsor work
• New VCS log RSS feed - This one now works with CVS, Mercurial, and eventually SVN
• Lots of unit test improvements for various parts of the Mozdev templating system
• Cleaned up feedback page to recommend project owners file bugs for change requests so we can track problems better

I didn't get nearly as much accomplished last week w.r.t. Mercurial, but we're still making good progress. I need to update the VCS logs that are generated on the /source.html pages and create a new source.html template that includes instructions for mercurial. I also need to write a bunch of docs, but have a fairly good template setup for what needs done.