Re: [stellation-res] why doesn't stellationd require a "password" argume

["Mark C. Chu-Carroll" <mcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Saturday 20 July 2002 06:12 pm, Florin Iucha wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 20, 2002 at 05:28:26PM -0400, Mark C. Chu-Carroll wrote:
> > On Saturday 20 July 2002 01:09 pm, Florin Iucha wrote:
> > > I am confused about the authentication mechanisms in stellation
> > > regarding the postgres database.
> >
> > So far, our approach has been to not use postgres authentication.
> > We want an authentication distinct from the auth mechanism used
> > by the database system.
>
> [snip]
>
> > Then Stellation uses its own, DB neutral authentication mechanism. With
> > the server, it's a challenge mechanism, where the password is never
> > actually transmitted.
>
> I could see a desire to use existing authentication mechanisms (PAM,
> AD...) but that is an enhancement that can wait.

Other people suggested that early on. Our authenticator mechanism
is a plugin based approach, similar to PAM. But to be cross-platform
in Java, it's tough to use a system like PAM.

We also wanted Stellation authentication to be integrated with
the Stellation ACL system that I'm working on. 

If there's a good way to use something PAM like without losing
the cross-platform property, and maintaining the connection between
the authenticator and the repository, I'd be glad to add it in. I haven't
had time to explore doing something like that. 

> > When you do an "svc config database", Stellation initializes a
> > repository, and inserts a username and password from your
> > .svcrc file. (I'm not sure about what the default is if you didn't
> > put anything into the .svcrc file; that's the area of code that
> > Dave Shields is primarily responsible for.)
>
> OK.
>
> > > Could you please put a document with step-by-step description on how to
> > > set the users and passwords?
> >
> > We're working on it. There's a lot that we really need to get done,
> > and there are only three of us at IBM working on it. We really appreciate
> > the work you've been doing trying it out; getting an outside user to
> > try things like this helps us to find out what most needs doing.
>
> I really enjoy it and the project sounds promising.
>
> I would like to see a development roadmap and a list of issues yet to be
> solved. I can lend a hand.

Jim Wright is working on a roadmap document. He's hoping to
have  a draft by monday, and then I'll take a pass over it, and
then it'll be on the website. So you should have this very soon.

We'd be delighted to have you join in the work.

	-Mark

-- 
Mark Craig Chu-Carroll,  IBM T.J. Watson Research Center  
*** The Stellation project: Advanced SCM for Collaboration
***		http://www.eclipse.org/stellation
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