Merge pull request mirage#288 from amirmc/weekly

Add notes from call on 2015-02-11

src/data.ml

@@ -316,6 +316,7 @@ module Wiki = struct
     }
 
   let entries = [
+    weekly ~y:2015 ~m:2 ~d:11 ~a:amir;
     weekly ~y:2015 ~m:1 ~d:28 ~a:amir;
     weekly ~y:2015 ~m:1 ~d:14 ~a:amir;
     weekly ~y:2014 ~m:12 ~d:10 ~a:amir;

tmpl/wiki/index.md

@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ Mirage is still in pre-alpha stage, but the infrastructure you see here is self-
 *Calls take place every two weeks and are announced on the
 [mailing list](http://lists.xenproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mirageos-devel).*
 
+* Weekly call [2015-02-11](/wiki/weekly-2015-02-11) on Improving quality, error handling, TLS merge and GSoC.
 * Weekly call [2015-01-28](/wiki/weekly-2015-01-28) on OPAM 1.2, FOSDEM, new URL and 3.0 meta-planning.
 * Weekly call [2015-01-14](/wiki/weekly-2015-01-14) on Project name, 4.02.1 support, TLS on Xen and Error handling.
 * Weekly call [2014-12-10](/wiki/weekly-2014-12-10) on Entropy, Tracing docs, OSX backend, IPv6 and Projects.

tmpl/wiki/weekly/2015-02-11.md

@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+11th Feb 2015: Improving quality, error handling, TLS merge and GSoC
+
+### Agenda ###
+
+- Improving Quality
+- Error Handling RFC
+- TLS merge progress
+- OPAM 1.2 only
+- GSoC Projects
+- FOSDEM demo
+- Bitcoin Piñata
+
+
+Attendees: Amir Chaudhry, Thomas Gazagnaire, David Kaloper, Thomas Leonard,
+Jon Ludlam, Anil Madhavapeddy, Hannes Mehnert, Richard Mortier, Dave Scott,
+Mindy Preston and Nicolas Ojeda Bar
+
+
+### Notes ###
+
+#### Improving Quality #### 
+
+We need to improve this in a more general and automated way. So far, we've done
+quite well with local library testing but we don't really have the ability to
+test things in coordinated way for unikernels.  Specifically, we don't really
+have much end-to-end testing that looks at the complete toolchain. The only
+place where this surfaces for us is still mirage-www (this website!), as bugs
+tend to appear there whenever a wider issue occurs (cf. the recent crash on
+boot - [mirage/mirage#375][]). Finding bugs in an automated way and reporting
+them is important as the project grows.
+
+Some options include providing a manifest of specific versions and running
+tests that way.  It would allow us to take different libraries and bisect
+issues.  We would have to build this ourselves as we still have very few
+automated tests e.g [is-mirage-broken][] (and it's not enough to just have
+tests — we also have to fix things that they show as broken).
+
+Another thought is that instead of merging directly into the upstream OPAM
+repository (which is when we realise things aren't quite right), maybe we can
+merge into a staging repo and ensure they pass a bunch of additional tests. 
+Provided tests pass, then the libraries can be merged upstream en-masse — in a
+known-working state. However, we must take care to balance things between
+staging and releases — we don't want to end up with a large backlog of
+'unreleased' software and then do infrequent 'big-bang' releases.  We need to
+test and release upstream often and no-one should have to add the staging
+remote just to use up to date software (that would merely shift the current 
+problem from the main OPAM repo to our staging repo).
+
+Related to the above, the ability to splice from an OPAM remote might be good 
+(currently have to take *everything* on a remote).  Perhaps ThomasG, Anil and
+Louis Gesbert can discuss at this. At the moment, trying to add test cases
+into libraries will make a big difference as an interim workflow.  For
+example, Magnus has been patching TCP/IP to have some functional testing on
+Travis and we could do this for other libraries too, e.g DNS, Cohttp, etc and
+the approach would be useful elsewhere too.  Getting some kind of Xen testing
+into [mirage-skeleton][] would also be great.
+
+[mirage/mirage#375]: https://github.com/mirage/mirage/issues/357
+[is-mirage-broken]: https://github.com/mirage/is-mirage-broken/blob/master/logs/README.md
+[mirage-skeleton]: https://github.com/mirage/mirage-skeleton
+
+#### Error Handling RFC #### 
+
+Thomas Leonard [began a discussion][err-mail] on Error handling in Mirage and
+[submitted a page][err-pr] to the website as an RFC. Since then, he's tried to
+document what people advocating for polymorphic variants were describing but,
+it would be better if other people can read it and advocate for their opinion
+(DavidK would take a look). There are also things from 4.02 that we might want
+to consider. In general, one of the themes that emerged from the discussions
+so far is the difference of Error-handling 'in the large' and 'in the small'.
+
+[err-mail]: http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/mirageos-devel/2015-01/msg00143.html
+[err-pr]: https://github.com/mirage/mirage-www/pull/274
+
+#### OPAM 1.2 support only ####
+
+The [patch to the mirage tool][drop-12] has been made but not merged yet.
+ThomasG needs to get around to this and will do in due course.
+
+[drop-12]: https://github.com/mirage/mirage/pull/353
+
+#### TLS Merge progress #### 
+
+We are almost there with this and there are number of patches that need to be
+reviewed and merged ([mirage/mirage-dev#52][]). The largest blockers are the
+blobs of C code and getting them to run on Mirage. The last mile still hasn't
+been covered as the entropy story is not yet complete — we need to get
+`xentropyd` out first. Currently it's not reliable enough as things start
+hanging. Once that's out of the way we're looking good.  DavidK is working on
+it.
+
+[mirage/mirage-dev#52]: https://github.com/mirage/mirage-dev/pull/52
+
+
+#### GSoC Projects #### 
+
+As part of Xen, we will be submitting projects as part of Google Summer of
+Code (GSoC). We've been curating a set of [Pioneer Projects][pioneer] and we
+can definitely add to this list. A quick call for ideas resulted in several
+potential projects being proposed and these will be added to the projects page.
+Very briefly, we discussed:
+
+- A router VM, which can route traffic and be a DHCP server.
+- A syslog unikernel
+- A Firewall
+- OCaml SSH
+
+Please see the [Pioneer Projects page][pioneer] for more details.
+
+[pioneer]: https://github.com/mirage/mirage-www/wiki/Pioneer-Projects
+
+#### FOSDEM Demo #### 
+
+Amir gave a demo at FOSDEM of a unikernel running on a Cubieboard2, that would
+serve the 2048 game when people connected to its Wifi access point.  Mindy,
+Magnus and DavidK helped to get the Wifi bridge working and the demo was quite
+successful. There's a [blog post][demo] describing the event and the [repo][]
+is available with instructions on what to do. Several people expressed an
+interest in summer projects so they were directed to the Pioneer Projects page.
+
+[demo]: http://amirchaudhry.com/unikernel-arm-demo-fosdem/
+[repo]: https://github.com/amirmc/fosdemo
+
+#### Bitcoin Piñata #### 
+
+Yesterday, saw the release of the [Bitcoin Piñata][btc-pin], which is designed
+to draw more attention to the OCaml TLS stack and unikernels. Amir wrote a
+[background post][bg] to provide some context around it and both of these
+appear to have spread very quickly over social media.  The challenge is to
+break into a unikernel and recover the private key to a bitcoin address (and
+then make off with the bitcoins) — Hence the name, Piñata.  If someone does
+manage to take the coins, we should see the transaction in the [blockchain][].
+Somewhat ironically, it seems that people have *added* some coins to the
+address (albeit only a small amount). The Piñata is due to be up for about a
+month, or until the coins are gone — the only reason for the time limit is due
+to the maintenance burden of keeping the site up and dealing with issues (cf.
+the site was subjected to a [SYN flood][syn-flood] the evening after it went
+live.).
+
+[btc-pin]: http://ownme.ipredator.se/
+[bg]: http://amirchaudhry.com/bitcoin-pinata/
+[blockchain]: https://blockchain.info/address/183XuXTTgnfYfKcHbJ4sZeF46a49Fnihdh
+[syn-flood]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SYN_flood
+
+-- 
+
+#### AoB ####
+
+- The next call is scheduled for **Wednesday, 25th February** - Please add any
+[agenda items][call-agenda] you wish to discuss in advance and refer to the
+[mailing list][mir-mail] for actual details a day or so in advance.
+
+[call-agenda]: https://github.com/mirage/mirage-www/wiki/Call-Agenda
+[mir-mail]: http://lists.xenproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mirageos-devel