-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

When creating the vcl-install.sh and vcl-upgrade.sh scripts, I planned to be 
able to distribute them separately from the release artifacts (in addition to 
being within the artifacts) so that someone only needs to download the script, 
and the script will handle downloading and validating the artifact.  It makes 
sense to distribute them from the same dist location as the release artifacts 
since that is the official release location.  The scripts contain the version 
number to install.  Because they have a version number, they need to be 
updated in the dist location for each release.  However, for the same reason 
that we couldn't update the 2.4 release after the bug was found in it before 
we announced it, we can't just update the files with each release without 
triggering a possible security issue.

As a solution, I thought maybe we could have scripts in the dist location that 
have a version number as part of the file name and use symlinks to point to 
the latest version, updating the symlinks at each release.  However, this 
doesn't work for the signature files, since the signature files have the 
original filename in them (that includes the version number).  So, when an 
attempt to verify the signature is done, the file listed in the signature is 
not found.  As an example:

download vcl-install.sh (which is a symlink to vcl-install-2.4.1.sh)
download vcl-install.sh.sha1 (which is a symlink to vcl-install-2.4.1.sh.sha1)
verify .sha1 file: sha1sum -c vcl-install.sh.sha1
sha1sum: vcl-upgrade-2.4.1.sh: No such file or directory

Interestingly, verifying the .asc GnuPG signature still works.

Before attempting yet another solution that may not work, I thought I'd bring 
it up on the list to seek input.  What I'm thinking to do now is to add a 
'scripts' directory under the dist folder.  Then, add version number folders 
under there, with the install and upgrade scripts in each version number 
folder, like:

dist/vcl/scripts/2.4.1/vcl-install.sh
dist/vcl/scripts/2.4.1/vcl-install.sh.sha1
dist/vcl/scripts/2.4.1/vcl-install.sh.asc
dist/vcl/scripts/2.4.1/vcl-upgrade.sh
dist/vcl/scripts/2.4.1/vcl-upgrade.sh.sha1
dist/vcl/scripts/2.4.1/vcl-upgrade.sh.asc

When the next version comes out, we would just add a new release number under 
the scripts folder.

Does this sound like a good idea?  Other suggestions?

Thanks,
Josh
- -- 
- -------------------------------
Josh Thompson
VCL Developer
North Carolina State University

my GPG/PGP key can be found at pgp.mit.edu

All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which
are sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public
Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2

iEYEARECAAYFAlUUGOwACgkQV/LQcNdtPQPvTwCbBfQkNbODUBJ+q+ix6oqqvRs2
S4gAn33QxEo37/+3SS1+YGqM+hca6w7K
=2aUo
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Reply via email to