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/**************************************************************************/
[task #120] Latest Modifications:

Changes by: 
                Mathieu Roy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
'Date: 
                dim 19.09.2004 � 12:13 (Europe/Paris)

            What     | Removed                   | Added
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Should be Finished on | mer 02.06.2004 � 00:00    | lun 02.06.2008 � 00:00
            Priority | 3 - Low                   | 1 - Later
          Resolution | None                      | Later







/**************************************************************************/
[task #120] Full Item Snapshot:

URL: <http://gna.org/task/?func=detailitem&item_id=120>
Project: Gna! Administration
Submitted by: Vincent Caron
On: lun 02.02.2004 � 18:49

Should Start On:  lun 02.02.2004 � 00:00
Should be Finished on:  lun 02.06.2008 � 00:00
Category:  Services Functionalities
Priority:  1 - Later
Resolution:  Later
Privacy:  Public
Assigned to:  zerodeux
Percent Complete:  0%
Status:  Open
Effort:  0.00


Summary:  PHP support for homepages

Original Submission:  Evaluate load and security issues for PHP support on 
home.gna.org.

Commentaires
------------------


-------------------------------------------------------
Date: ven 14.05.2004 � 19:47        By: Mathieu Roy <yeupou>
� homepage.gna.org would be a shame IMHO. When you reach 10 pages to maintain, a 
little PHP glue �



I tend to disagree with that opinion. PHP makes sense only if you need to have dynamic 
content. If you have static content, there are better ways to generate it, and 
generate it once only.



I really think that people that want PHP should host the website somewhere else. 
Whatever way it is handled, PHP will still takes much more than apache + static files 
(and poses other security troubles) and I think that website hosting should be the 
lesser important priority for gna: it is easy to get a www host already, unlike 
development tools. 



I really think that a CGI www host should only happen on a 4th server. We are not 
exactly aware of the cost of SVN and Arch (which one we do not currently plainly 
support - or support) and I think we should not make fast move, especially to fullfil 
non-important needs.



(I still can CGI an non-important need because : this is not hard to find such host ; 
in most case PHP is used to serve static page, with is just costly in resources)





-------------------------------------------------------
Date: ven 14.05.2004 � 18:19        By: Vincent Caron <zerodeux>
Some ressources on load limiting :



  * Apache core RLimitCPU, RLimitMEM, RLimitNPROC directives are only effective for 
external CGIs, not for embedded scripts like mod_php and mod_perl.





  * That's why PHP has its own limits in php.ini : 
http://cvs.php.net/co.php/php-src/php.ini-dist



max_execution_time = 30     ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds

max_input_time = 60     ; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request 
data

memory_limit = 8M      ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (8MB)



  Since the maximum number of PHP interpreter instances is bound by the maximum size 
of Apache process pool, there is an indirect way to limit load (and mem usage).





  * Apache could be globally ressource controled with ulimit, since it's not alone on 
the machine it could help. I've never tested this possibility.



-------------------------------------------------------
Date: ven 14.05.2004 � 10:23        By: Vincent Caron <zerodeux>
You're more concerned about load issues, I'm more about security ones, we should 
succeed to make a wise decision :)



I'm currently working at an ISP where all issues relate to security and poorly written 
Perl and PHP scripts. However I must confess I never had to deal with ressource issues 
(wether by user mistake or mal-intentionned DoS).



Not having some scripting support on homepage.gna.org would be a shame IMHO. When you 
reach 10 pages to maintain, a little PHP glue makes your life much easier. Maybe 
simply enbaling SSI could help, but it's a bit primitive. I would only avoid 
installing PHP if there were *dread serious* issues against it.



Proposal: have a severly limited PHP support with only core libs, and NO (ever, ever) 
database, GD, and other funky things which regularly jeopardize our first concerns. 
I'm searching now for some info on PHP & CPU load management.



-------------------------------------------------------
Date: ven 14.05.2004 � 09:37        By: Vincent Caron <zerodeux>
[notes from Mathieu, support ticket #229]



Hello,



I'd like to stress the fact that the main reason why we do not provide PHP is not 
security but resources. It is not really hard to jail PHP in a pretty secure way.



But I do not think we should take the risk to waste CPU time and RAM for PHP. There 
are free provider that proposes PHP and people still have the option to run their own 
webserver: in this case, we would not fullfill no one else do.



Considering that a company like Free took 3 years to get a clean setup that avoid 
having PHP completely sucking a bunch of server resources, I would definitely not be 
happy if PHP was set up on Gna! machine will Gna! is not 5 month old and his number of 
users increasing at high speed (proportionaly, because Gna! is young -- every hundred 
user makes a difference).



So I would definitely not say "we are planning to support PHP soon". It would not be 
wise. Also, cvs and home are currently on the same machine : I would not think wise 
either to let users use PHP on the machine hosting cvs. It is not even a matter of 
having PHP secure: we already can do that. But as secure an installation can be, it 
can still be cracked. And it can more easily be cracked with PHP available on the same 
box.



-------------------------------------------------------
Date: lun 02.02.2004 � 19:00        By: Mathieu Roy <yeupou>
I think that we'll be able to evaluate correctly the load issue only in several month, 
once the servers will be running in a state we could consider as usual, with services 
really used.












For detailed info, follow this link:
<http://gna.org/task/?func=detailitem&item_id=120>

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