Obnam → blog → 2022 → 04 → 03 → Iteration planning: April 4 – 17
  1. Assessment of the iteration that has ended
  2. Discussion
    1. Current development theme
    2. cachedir utility
  3. Repository review
    1. Container Images
    2. obnam.org
    3. obnam-benchmark
    4. cachedir
    5. summain
    6. obnam
  4. Goals
    1. Goal for 1.0 (not changed this iteration)
    2. Goal for the next few iterations (not changed for this iteration)
    3. Goal for this iteration (new for this iteration)
  5. Commitments for this iteration
  6. Meeting participants

Assessment of the iteration that has ended

The goal of the previous iteration was:

The goal of this iteration is to add a "root object" for a user's backups, which lists the backup generations in order.

This was completed.

Discussion

Current development theme

The current theme of development for Obnam is convenience. The choices are performance, security, convenience, and tidy-up, at least currently.

cachedir utility

Lars created a simple cachedir utility, in Rust. It's not yet on crates.io, and there's not yet a Debian package, as those are both blocked on a Subplot release. The git repository is at https://gitlab.com/obnam/cachedir.

Repository review

Lars reviewed all the open issues, merge requests, and CI pipelines for all the projects in the Obnam group on gitlab.com.

Container Images

  • Open issues: 0
  • Merge requests: 0
  • Additional branches: 0
  • CI: OK, ran on Monday, March 28

obnam.org

  • Open issues: 0
  • Merge requests: 0
  • Additional branches: 0
  • CI: not defined

obnam-benchmark

  • Open issues: 11
  • Merge requests: 0
  • Additional branches: 0
  • CI: not defined

cachedir

  • Open issues: 0
  • Merge requests: 0
  • Additional branches: 0
  • CI: not defined

summain

  • Open issues: 0
  • Merge requests: 0
  • Additional branches: 0
  • CI: not defined

obnam

  • Open issues: 54
  • Merge requests: 2
    • !226 - Log some performance measurements
      • to be merged on Monday
  • Additional branches: 0
  • CI: OK

Goals

Goal for 1.0 (not changed this iteration)

The goal for version 1.0 is for Obnam to be an utterly boring backup solution for Linux command line users. It should just work, be performant, secure, and well-documented.

It is not a goal for version 1.0 to have been ported to other operating systems, but if there are volunteers to do that, and to commit to supporting their port, ports will be welcome.

Other user interfaces is likely to happen only after 1.0.

The server component will support multiple clients in a way that doesn’t let them see each other’s data. It is not a goal for clients to be able to share data, even if the clients trust each other.

Goal for the next few iterations (not changed for this iteration)

The goal for next few iterations is to have Obnam be easier and safer to change, both for developers and end users. This means that developers need to be able to make breaking changes without users having to suffer. User shall be able to migrate their data, when they feel it worthwhile, not just because there is a new version.

Goal for this iteration (new for this iteration)

The goal for this iteration is to further improve our ability to make changes to Obnam safely.

Commitments for this iteration

Lars intends to work on the "root object" change, as described above. This will affect, and hopefully resolve the following issues:

  • obnam#202 - Server HTTP API is not versioned
    • Lars will make all the current HTTP API end points be verisoned: /v1/chunks etc.
  • obnam#203 - No migration to new checksum types
    • Lars will add a prefix to all checksum, and add a second supported checksum type. User will be able to configure which checksum is used for new chunks, while old chunks are used with whatever they were labelled as.

Meeting participants

  • Lars Wirzenius