[cross-project-issues-dev] New web-based signing service

[Denis Roy <denis.roy@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Folks,

As part of the work on CBI (Common Build Infra) we've improved the
signing process two ways:

1. a new web-based signing service has the ability to sign submitted jar
files immediately. 

2. for the current queue-based "sign" command, the "now" parameter
(added to your choice of "mail" or "nomail") instructs the signer to
perform signing immediately, and return control to the caller once
signing is complete.

Both of these methods should greatly improve the responsiveness of the
signing service, making it adequate to sign JAR files sequentially.


Please note:
- the web-based signing service does not pack or otherwise process JAR
files like the queue-based service does.
- the web-based service is not suitable for ZIP files containing
multiple jar files.
- the queue-based "now" service packs/processes jars in the same way
"mail" and "nomail" do.
- the queue-based "now" service can accept ZIP files containing jar
files.  However, because the signing process can take a long time, care
must be taken to prevent SSH connections from external sources from
becoming idle (and being disconnected).

To use the web service, simply POST .jar files to
http://build.eclipse.org:31338/sign from an internal Eclipse.org server
(Hudson, its slaves or build.eclipse.org itself) and the signed file
will be returned as a binary download.  This URI is not accessible from
outside of the eclipse.org firewall.

For more information on the signing process, please see:
http://wiki.eclipse.org/IT_Infrastructure_Doc#Sign_my_plugins.2FZIP_files.3F

Thanks,

Denis