Open Stack

On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Ben Nemec <openstack at nemebean.com> 
wrote:
> On 08/11/2014 01:02 PM, Yuriy Taraday wrote:
>>  On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 5:44 AM, Joshua Harlow 
>> <harlowja at outlook.com> wrote:
>>  
>>>  One question from me:
>>> 
>>>  Will there be later fixes to remove oslo.config dependency/usage 
>>> from
>>>  oslo.concurrency?
>>> 
>>>  I still don't understand how oslo.concurrency can be used as a 
>>> library
>>>  with the configuration being set in a static manner via 
>>> oslo.config (let's
>>>  use the example of `lock_path` @ https://github.com/YorikSar/
>>>  oslo.concurrency/blob/master/oslo/concurrency/lockutils.py#L41). 
>>> For
>>>  example:
>>> 
>>>  Library X inside application Z uses lockutils (via the nice
>>>  oslo.concurrency library) and sets the configuration `lock_path` 
>>> to its
>>>  desired settings, then library Y (also a user of oslo.concurrency) 
>>> inside
>>>  same application Z sets the configuration for `lock_path` to its 
>>> desired
>>>  settings. Now both have some unknown set of configuration they 
>>> have set and
>>>  when library X (or Y) continues to use lockutils they will be 
>>> using some
>>>  mix of configuration (likely some mish mash of settings set by X 
>>> and Y);
>>>  perhaps to a `lock_path` that neither actually wants to be able to 
>>> write
>>>  to...
>>> 
>>>  This doesn't seem like it will end well; and will just cause 
>>> headaches
>>>  during debug sessions, testing, integration and more...
>>> 
>>>  The same question can be asked about the `set_defaults()` 
>>> function, how is
>>>  library Y or X expected to use this (are they?)??
>>> 
>>>  I hope one of the later changes is to remove/fix this??
>>> 
>>>  Thoughts?
>>> 
>>>  -Josh
>>  
>>  
>>  I'd be happy to remove lock_path config variable altogether. It's 
>> basically
>>  never used. There are two basic branches in code wrt lock_path:
>>  - when you provide lock_path argument to lock (and derivative 
>> functions),
>>  file-based lock is used and CONF.lock_path is ignored;
>>  - when you don't provide lock_path in arguments, semaphore-based 
>> lock is
>>  used and CONF.lock_path is just a prefix for its name (before 
>> hashing).
>>  
>>  I wonder if users even set lock_path in their configs as it has 
>> almost no
>>  effect. So I'm all for removing it, but...
>>  From what I understand, every major change in lockutils drags along 
>> a lot
>>  of headache for everybody (and risk of bugs that would be 
>> discovered very
>>  late). So is such change really worth it? And if so, it will 
>> require very
>>  thorough research of lockutils usage patterns.
> 
> Two things lock_path has to stay for: Windows and consumers who 
> require
> file-based locking semantics.  Neither of those use cases are trivial 
> to
> remove, so IMHO it would not be appropriate to do it as part of the
> graduation.  If we were going to alter the API that much it needed to
> happen in incubator.
> 
> 
> As far as lock_path mismatches, that shouldn't be a problem unless a
> consumer is doing something very unwise.  Oslo libs get their
> configuration from the application using them, so unless the 
> application
> passes two separate conf objects to library X and Y they're both going
> to get consistent settings.  If someone _is_ doing that, then I think
> it's their responsibility to make sure the options in both config 
> files
> are compatible with each other.

Why would it be assumed they would pass the same settings (how is that 
even possible to know ahead of time? especially if library X pulls in a 
new library ZZ that requires a new configuration setting). For example, 
one directory for `lock_path` may be reasonable for tooz and another 
may be reasonable for taskflow (completly depends on there intended 
usage), it would not likely desireable to have them go to the same 
location. Forcing application Z to know the inner workings of library X 
and library Y (or future unknown library ZZ) is just pushing the 
problem onto the library user, which seems inappropriate and breaks the 
whole point of having abstractions & APIs in the first place... This 
IMHO is part of the problem with having statically set *action at a 
distance* type of configuration, the libraries themselves are not in 
control of their own configuration, which breaks abstractions & APIs 
left and right. If some application Y can go under a library and pull 
the rug out from under it, how is that a reasonable thing to expect the 
library to be able to predict & handle?

This kind of requirement has always made me wonder how other libraries 
(like tooz, or taskflow) actually interact with any of the oslo.* 
libraries in any predicatable way (since those library could be 
interacting with oslo.* libraries that have configuration that can be 
switched out from underneath them, making those libraries have *secret* 
APIs that appear and disappear depending on what used oslo.* library 
was newly added as a dependency and what newly added configuration that 
library sucked in/exposed...).

-Josh

> 
> 
> -Ben
> 
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