FreeBSD CVSup Access Policy

Overview

This document presents the access policy for CVSup services on freefall.FreeBSD.org and CVSup-master.FreeBSD.org.

FreeBSD's network of CVSup mirrors is organized in the following way. At the center of the universe is freefall, which holds the master CVS repository where the committers do their work. CVSup-master mirrors the repository from freefall continuously, with a goal of lagging the state of freefall by 6 minutes or less at all times. The public FreeBSD mirror sites in turn update themselves periodically from CVSup-master. These updates occur hourly for almost all mirror sites. Consequently, the public mirrors lag freefall by about 66 minutes worst case and 33 minutes average.

In order to minimize the lag between freefall and CVSup-master, freefall must have no other CVSup clients under normal conditions. Likewise, to reduce the lag experienced by mirror sites, we must limit the load on CVSup-master and on the FreeBSD project's Internet connection. Thus we control access to these servers according to the following rules.

Access policy for public FreeBSD mirror sites

• Public FreeBSD mirror sites are welcome to obtain their updates from CVSup-master.
• If you wish to provide a new public FreeBSD CVSup mirror site, contact <cvsup-master@FreeBSD.org>. Note, in many areas of the world there are already enough mirror sites. It is possible that we will ask to hold your kind offer in reserve for some future time when we have a need for it.
• Access to CVSup-master is controlled by authentication keys which can be generated using the cvpasswd program. Instructions can be found here. When running cvpasswd, specify the server name as "freefall.freebsd.org" on the command line, even though your updates will actually be coming from CVSup-master.
• Do not share your CVSup authentication key with anybody.
• Mirror sites may update themselves from CVSup-master hourly, but no more frequently than that.
• Mirror sites are not allowed to get their updates directly from freefall.

Access policy for FreeBSD committers

• Committers should get their everyday updates from a public FreeBSD mirror site.
• In specific instances when more up-to-the-minute updates are needed, committers may get those updates from CVSup-master. We request that you think carefully before getting an update from CVSup-master. Use CVSup-master only when files an hour old would not be adequate.
• By default, committers do not receive direct CVSup access to freefall. However, if your committing style is such that CVSup-master's 6-minute lag is inconvenient, you may request direct access to Freefall from <cvsup-master@FreeBSD.org>. Such requests will be granted without fail; all you have to do is think and then ask. Updates directly from freefall should be used sparingly and only when absolutely necessary. Please consider having a cup of coffee and/or visiting the bathroom as an alternative solution for the 6-minute lag at CVSup-master.
• Whenever you update from CVSup-master or freefall, please use the CVSup GUI's "Filter" type-in and/or "-i pattern" option on the command line to limit your update to just those subtrees from which you need up-to-the-minute files. For example, if you are working on "cat" and "ls", type

     src/bin/cat src/bin/ls
  

  into the "Filter" type-in, or add

     -i src/bin/cat -i src/bin/ls
  

  to your cvsup command line.
• Periodic (cron job) updates are not permitted from CVSup-master or freefall. Use a public mirror site for those.
• Access to CVSup-master and freefall is controlled by authentication keys which can be generated using the cvpasswd program. Instructions can be found here. When running cvpasswd, specify the server name as "freefall.freebsd.org" on the command line, even if your updates will actually be coming from CVSup-master.
• Do not share your CVSup authentication key with anybody.

Access policy for everybody else