*.x.org vs xorg.freedesktop.org, again (was: Re: State of the archive)

[Daniel Stone]

On Wed, May 10, 2006 at 07:51:04PM +0200, Egbert Eich wrote:
> This however is different from the 'who gets access to those machines?'
> question.
> The mirroring would remedy the problem of not having latest releases
> (especially security) available on the box - even without anyone needing
> to access the machines.

They're not the same problem, but they are related, and I can't say that
I even begin to understand the bizzare 'no-one but the board gets access
to the machines/website' policy, given that:
  * xorg.freedesktop.org is, again, the master archive server, rendering
    any 'security' processes on ftp.x.org utterly moot;
  * xorg.freedesktop.org is also the de facto website, rendering access
    controls on www.x.org mostly irrelevant.

I find it odd that we trust ninety-one people to commit code to CVS:
code that runs as root on most people's systems, yet we only trust a
number of people I can assume to be <= 5, to update ftp.x.org, and
www.x.org.

This made sense in the TOG days.  It does not even remotely make sense
now.

> 2. The machine has remote management. This allows us to kick the machine even
>    when not in place. I've done this once (being dialed into the internet
>    thru an analog line - as nobody else volunteered to do so).

I believe expo.x.org is (like fruit, kemper and annarchy), a Proliant
DL385.  Remote management on those machines is, in a word, ridiculous.
You have remote power management and remote console by default,
including over SSH, and if you have the super advanced trickery, you can
feed it an ISO image over the network, and say 'turn on and boot this'.

The only scenario I can see local access being necessary for on fd.o is
something that requires physical change: either replacing components, or
rewiring.

Cheers,
Daniel
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