2.2 Release Progress Update #2

[Bill Hacker]

Matthew Dillon wrote:
:Questions w/r Rel 2.2 and HAMMER:
:
*trimmed*

:Query 1:
:- Will 2.2 have the Version 2 / 'WIP' or otherwise?
    No.  Its still version 1 because the version 2 tests did not pan
    out.  Do not use version 2 (and the hammer program will complain a
    lot if you try).
Noted, thanks.

:Query 2:
*trimmed*

:However - where /home is itself a pfs mount, as in the default install, 
:a warning message will follow on the next three lines:
:You are attempting to access a PFS softlink... et al
:
:Further operations fail with that error message and/or no such file.

    It wants you to create the actual PFS softlinks on PFS #0... the root
    mount.
Noted. Which works fine on-box.

Note for future in planning a 'production' install:

For portability, it may make sense to reserve slices and/or additional 
storage media NOT part of the base in order to keep (OS+tools) & 
(app/user datastore) less interdependent.

*trimmed*

:w/o the 'pfs':
:
:     hammer mirror-copy /master /slave
    They are not null-mounted by the hammer utility.  It only creates the
    softlinks.
Noted as related to need to work from outside/above an existing PFS, 
thanks. Will dig deeper.

:OTOH - I'm not yet able to get the user at host via ssh remote equivalent 
:to work, with or without a pre-existing slave on the target.
:
Hacking the offending code now. Seems that it loses ability to find the 
'involved' tty to receive an answer to the '[yes|no]' challenge whenever 
a PWD is required of one end or the other of the ssh connection. DOES 
accept a pwd for ONE end, but not for two, though it shows the 
appropriate challenge.

In either case, a countdown with 'Ctrl-c to abort' as used in 
pfs-destroy should be more universal if/as/when mirror-copy / 
mirror-stream are to be invoked by a cron script or such...

IF ALSO use of certs or other non-password auth is required, man page 
should so indicate.

:I thought it was to be possible to mount at points other-than '/' such 
:as to make selected substs available / exportable / mirror-able?
:
*trimmed*

    No, you can only mirror whole PFSs.  You cannot mirror subdirectory
    trees.
Noted.

*trimmed*

:.despite citing the matching pfs number in the error message.

    You should be able to mount the slave after you've done the initial
    mirroring operation.  The slave has no root directory until the initial
    mirroring operation has been done (the root directory has to be
    mirrored from the master first).
ACK. Absent (yet) getting the ssh toolset to agree with a 
password-authed environment, w/r either mirror-copy or mirror-stream to 
a not-yet-existing slave, 'cheating' seems to work or testing:

- create a slave on same-box, mirror-copy from master to it, dd the 
result into place on the remote box.

One of the issues for the uninitiated is that the default install leaves 
only the '/' not in a PFS, ergo the man page example fails, AND the 
change from '/home/<whatever>' to '/<whatever> requires an ssh caller 
arrive with root privs in order to create the slave.

Short term, local LAN, testing only, I have experimented with allowing 
root login and/or granting insane privs.

Longer term, mounting a separate HDD and granting requisite privs to 
that store (only) seems appropriate.

Not new - same environment a cpdup or rsync runner needs.

'Quis custodiet..' et al.

    However, any mount_null will lock the slave's transaction id... you
    are mounting a snapshot, not the current state of the slave.
					-Matt
					Matthew Dillon 
					<dillon at backplane.com>
I hear that last part, but ... presume the 5-sec. default updates are 
still at work on (at least) the raw soflink.

A <reload> in Thunar has no-more-than 5-sec lag between what /master and 
/slave display as I make changes in /master. Cross-box, for now, not yet 
sorted how to get remote to update.

NB: Did have an 8-hour time diff between two boxes. Both on GMT and same 
dntp now.  Starting over omce I've corrected the code (other message).....

Thanks & regards,

Bill