middle-man-developers Mailing List for Middleman filtering proxy server

Hi Steve, Joshua and Alejandro,

> >> Is this project still alive ?
> >
> >The GPL'd code is still in CVS.  It has more bugs than squid, but it
> >currently reasonably OK.  What is needed is someone to adopt the code
> >and continue to refine it.

I worked on Middleman a year ago with Jason McLaughlin. In the beginning, I
developed a branch of middleman, Shweby (http://shweby.sourceforge.net) as
an ICAP client for the POESIA project (http://poesia.sourceforge.net). After
that I joined the Middlmean project and I redesigned the web interface and
the XML reader in C++ and that was a good introduction to C++ and object
oriented programming for me... It was a good experience for me in
open-source development. But when Jason desided to licence a proprietary
version (SafeSquid) based on Middleman, I gave him my permission because I
think that he deserves earning money from his project.

Now I am not active in Middleman, due to my full time job as software
engineer. But I can help you fixing bugs or understanding how Middleman
works...

> I downloaded it at one point and it crashed repeatedly. I know C but not
> C++ (I know they are very similar in some respects but it would be a
> whole new learning curve) and was not able to fix or find where it was
> crashing. Verion 1.x was a lot more stable.
>

Could you please tell me what version did you download? I need also a bug
report as explained in the documentation, with your config file, the log
file and a core dump. Then I can help you.

> Too bad to hear it went proprietary.

Sure. But the open source code still exists and can be carried on by other
developers... Every body is welcomed to contribute to the project.

Best regards,

Riadh.

Ignore this message, I am just testing the mailing list.

>On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 10:43:35AM -0500, Nielsen, Steve wrote:
>> Did you ever find an answer to the licensing questions for middleman?
>
>Yah.
>
>The lead author got agreement from all the contributors to do a
>proprietary fork.

Was not aware you could do that to GPL'ed code. I thought all derivative
work had to be redistributed. Too bad.

>> Is this project still alive ?
>
>The GPL'd code is still in CVS.  It has more bugs than squid, but it
>currently reasonably OK.  What is needed is someone to adopt the code
>and continue to refine it.

I downloaded it at one point and it crashed repeatedly. I know C but not
C++ (I know they are very similar in some respects but it would be a
whole new learning curve) and was not able to fix or find where it was
crashing. Verion 1.x was a lot more stable.

Too bad to hear it went proprietary.

Steve

On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 10:43:35AM -0500, Nielsen, Steve wrote:
> Did you ever find an answer to the licensing questions for middleman?

Yah.

The lead author got agreement from all the contributors to do a
proprietary fork.

> Is this project still alive ?

The GPL'd code is still in CVS.  It has more bugs than squid, but it
currently reasonably OK.  What is needed is someone to adopt the code
and continue to refine it.

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

Joshua,

Did you ever find an answer to the licensing questions for middleman? Is
this project still alive ?

Steve

On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 09:44:00AM -0300, Alejandro Mery wrote:
> i wanted to try middleman as filtering (no cache) proxy, but first i=20
> would like to know about it's current status, is it alive? what will you=
=20
> do against safesquid? etc...

Dansguard is more mature and probably better maintained.

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

hi,
i wanted to try middleman as filtering (no cache) proxy, but first i 
would like to know about it's current status, is it alive? what will you 
do against safesquid? etc...

Best regards,
Alejandro Mery

One of the primary authors of middleman, Jason McLaughlin, forked the
code around version 2.0 and started a commercial branch called
SafeSquid.  The web site is here:

  http://www.safesquid.com/html/index.shtml

The question in my mind is whether all the other contributors gave
assent for a license change.  I don't find any hint of such a
discussion on the mailing lists or forums.  Even so, maybe I am
missing something obvious.

I sent an email to Jason on 05 Aug, asking him to clarify the legal
status of SafeSquid. He did not reply yet. Perhaps he is still in the
process of switching ISPs. (He mentioned that his old email
ja...@sy... is discontinued and his new email is
mc...@gm....)

Here is some background about the matter:

1. At least since version 1.0 (May 2002), Middleman has been protected
by the GPL .

2. The GPL requires source code to be provided with any binary
distribution.

3. The GPL applies to derived works.

4. SafeSquid appears to be a closed-source fork of a GPL protected
code base.  This is exactly what the GPL is designed to prevent.

5. I find it bizarre and ironic that the person who appears to be
violating the GPL is also among the primary developers of the GPL'd
version.

Remedies:

1. SafeSquid can reposition itself as a service company providing
commercial support, similar to aubit.com. Whatever changes to the
middleman source code could then be merged back into CVS.

2. There are a few well-known projects which have split commercial and
free software licensing.  For example: Qt (Trolltech) and Ghostscript.

Middleman could follow this model too, but a one-time license change
would be required which is possible only by agreement from all the
contributors.  Judging from the AUTHORS file, that means that Jason
will need to win support for this plan from Riadh Elloumi, Ned Ludd,
Matthew Daniel, Jan Becvar, Mario Peschel, and possibly others.

The current situation is, well, illegal.

I am hesitant to pursue a settlement aggressively out of respect for
Mr. McLaughlin.  I don't think there is any need to report the
matter to the FSF unless it remains unresolved for another month.

Mr. McLaughlin, I am sorry to rain on your parade. I hope this letter
finds you well.

Best wishes,

-j

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

Oops... forgot the n at the end of your name :)

Should be fine now.. sorry.


On Tuesday 03 August 2004 08:18 am, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 01, 2004 at 01:49:12PM +0530, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> > When I try to commit, I get the following error:
> > 
> > **** Access denied: Insufficient Karma (jpritikin|middleman/src|)
> > cvs commit: Pre-commit check failed
> 
> The SF team replied:
> 
>   https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=200001&aid=1002523&group_id=1
> 
> Summary: The mman project admins need to adjust my status with respect
> to CVS acls.
> 

-- 
Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex - I could pinch them!
- Marvin the Martian

On Sun, Aug 01, 2004 at 01:49:12PM +0530, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> When I try to commit, I get the following error:
>=20
> **** Access denied: Insufficient Karma (jpritikin|middleman/src|)
> cvs commit: Pre-commit check failed

The SF team replied:

  https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=3Ddetail&atid=3D200001&aid=3D100252=
3&group_id=3D1

Summary: The mman project admins need to adjust my status with respect
to CVS acls.

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

When I try to commit, I get the following error:

**** Access denied: Insufficient Karma (jpritikin|middleman/src|)
cvs commit: Pre-commit check failed

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

Why is mman including libpcre?  Why not link against an installed
instance of the library?

Are there any significant changes in the pcre in CVS?

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

I am running Linux 2.6.7 + NTPL i386. Is it possible to run mman under
valgrind?  When I tried, something went wrong and too many threads
were created until valgrind crashed.  Has anyone had success with
this?

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

On Sun, Jul 25, 2004 at 09:12:43AM -0400, Jason McLaughlin wrote:
> profiles_checked is called twice, the first call connection->rheader will=
 always be NULL, on the second
> it won't and only entries with a MIME pattern will be checked (i.e. the o=
nes that weren't checked the first call)

Oh!  I see.

Hrm.

What is actually happening is that connection->header->host is NULL
the first time that profiles_update is called.  The second time
profiles_update is called, the host is set but there is no MIME
pattern so the profile is skipped.

This is for a regular HTTP_REQUEST via transparent proxy.

I'm not sure what is the correct fix.  There is a big chunk of code
=66rom main.c:931 to 970.  It seems like some of this code needs to
happen the first time the header is parsed.  If you can give me a clue
then I can probably put together a patch.

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

profiles_checked is called twice, the first call connection->rheader will always be NULL, on the second
it won't and only entries with a MIME pattern will be checked (i.e. the ones that weren't checked the first call)


On Sunday 25 July 2004 07:52 am, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 21, 2004 at 10:37:11PM +0530, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> > Shall I try to create a patch for this?
> 
> So I submitted a few patches in the SF patch tracker.
> 
> I don't understand some of the code in
> ProfileSection::profiles_update.  If connection->rheader is not NULL
> then you must set the MIME type to the regexp .* to get a match.  This
> seems contrary to the documentation.  I guess I'll file a bug for this
> too.
> 

-- 
Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex - I could pinch them!
- Marvin the Martian

On Wed, Jul 21, 2004 at 10:37:11PM +0530, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> Shall I try to create a patch for this?

So I submitted a few patches in the SF patch tracker.

I don't understand some of the code in
ProfileSection::profiles_update.  If connection->rheader is not NULL
then you must set the MIME type to the regexp .* to get a match.  This
seems contrary to the documentation.  I guess I'll file a bug for this
too.

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

On Tue, Jul 20, 2004 at 10:10:35PM +0530, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> I suggest adding a greediness parameter for stores.  If the store is
> greedy then the file is stored in the most greedy store.  The
> sbalancemethod can be used to resolve ties.

Anyone home?

Shall I try to create a patch for this?

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

On Tue, Jul 20, 2004 at 07:04:29PM +0530, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> Anyway, what I want is to immediately cache these files on disk
> whether I enable the memory cache or not.  Perhaps there can be a flag
> in the store indicating whether to use the memory cache?

Umm ... reading CacheSection::select_store ... I'm not sure where
middleman decides whether to use the mem or disk cache but ...

I suggest adding a greediness parameter for stores.  If the store is
greedy then the file is stored in the most greedy store.  The
sbalancemethod can be used to resolve ties.

How does this sound?

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

I am trying to cache all files downloaded from ftp.au.debian.org to a
disk cache.  Here is the relevant part of my middleman config:

        <profile>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
            <comment>debian sources</comment>
            <profiles>debian</profiles>
            <protocol></protocol>
            <host>(ftp.au.debian.org|debian.planetmirror.com)</host>
            <file></file>
            <mime></mime>
            <portrange></portrange>
            <addprofiles></addprofiles>
            <removeprofiles></removeprofiles>
            <urlcommand></urlcommand>
        </profile>

        <store>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
            <comment></comment>
            <profiles>debian</profiles>
            <path>/var/cache/middleman/debian</path>
            <maxdisksize>500M</maxdisksize>
            <diskextra>50M</diskextra>
        </store>

This isn't working, however.  For example:

  wget http://debian.planetmirror.com:80/debian/dists/unstable/Release

When I look at mman/cache, I find this file stored in the memory
cache.

This might be another bug since I set the maximum size of the memory
cache to zero.  The other funny thing is that the mman/cache page
reports that the memory cache is 2147483648% used (looks like div by
zero).

Anyway, what I want is to immediately cache these files on disk
whether I enable the memory cache or not.  Perhaps there can be a flag
in the store indicating whether to use the memory cache?

--=20
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://openheartlogic.org

Le lun 19/07/2004 =E0 22:31, Nielsen, Steve a =E9crit :
> The licence of middleman is changing (I missed the first part of this thr=
ead) ?

Yes, because of license issue. Please look at this post:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/05/msg00595.html

--=20
C=E9dric Delfosse, http://cedric.freezope.org
Jabber ID: ce...@ja...

The licence of middleman is changing (I missed the first part of this =
thread) ?

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: C=E9dric Delfosse [mailto:ce...@de...]
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 3:27 PM
To: Riadh Elloumi
Cc: middleman psychos
Subject: [SPAM] - RE: [Middle-man-developers] middleman in Debian
unstable - Bayesian Filter detected spam


Le dim 18/07/2004 =E0 22:38, Riadh Elloumi a =E9crit :
> Thank you C=E9dric!
>=20
> The first thong I'll do is to modify the licence of Middleman.

OK. Don't forget to ask to other authors if they agree !

Regards,

--=20
C=E9dric Delfosse, http://cedric.freezope.org
Jabber ID: ce...@ja...

Le dim 18/07/2004 =E0 22:38, Riadh Elloumi a =E9crit :
> Thank you C=E9dric!
>=20
> The first thong I'll do is to modify the licence of Middleman.

OK. Don't forget to ask to other authors if they agree !

Regards,

--=20
C=E9dric Delfosse, http://cedric.freezope.org
Jabber ID: ce...@ja...

Le lun 19/07/2004 =E0 19:47, Nielsen, Steve a =E9crit :
> Cedric,
>=20
> There are no out of the ordinary messages in my log file. I downloaded ve=
rsion 1.9.1. This version has proved to be much more stable thant the lates=
t (2.0.1).=20

Could you run it with strace/ltrace ?

Regards,

--=20
C=E9dric Delfosse, http://cedric.freezope.org
Jabber ID: ce...@ja...

Cedric,

There are no out of the ordinary messages in my log file. I downloaded =
version 1.9.1. This version has proved to be much more stable thant the =
latest (2.0.1).=20

Steve

-----Original Message-----

Le jeu 15/07/2004 =E0 16:51, Nielsen, Steve a =E9crit :
 > Hi,
 >=20
 > I am testing middleman in a high proxy traffic environment (200 =
req/sec and 90mbits/sec)
and it is crashing every few minutes. I am looking for tip/pointers on =
how to track down
why. When it crashes the stack is being overwritten.
=20
 What are the last messages in your log ?
 You can have more log messages if you start middleman like this:
 % middleman -l /tmp/log -d 262144
=20
 Regards,
=20
-----Original Message-----
From: Nielsen, Steve=20
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 9:52 AM
To: 'mid...@li...'
Subject: middleman 2.0.1 crashing under high load


Hi,

I am testing middleman in a high proxy traffic environment (200 req/sec =
and 90mbits/sec) and it is crashing every few minutes. I am looking for =
tip/pointers on how to track down why. When it crashes the stack is =
being overwritten.

Here is what my setup is:
Fedora Core 2
Latest middle-man from CVS

I compiled with the following:
--enable-debug
--disable-ssl
--disable-zlib
--disable-ntlm

I run it in gdb to try to get a backtrace. However the stack itself is =
being corrupted.

I was hoping there is a straightforward way for trapping the error to =
find out where its occuring.

Steve

Thank you Cédric!

The first thong I'll do is to modify the licence of Middleman.

Regards,

Riadh.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mid...@li...
> [mailto:mid...@li...]On Behalf Of
> Cédric Delfosse
> Sent: samedi 17 juillet 2004 20:10
> To: middleman psychos
> Subject: [Middle-man-developers] middleman in Debian unstable
>
>
> Hello,
>
> middleman is now an official Debian package. Please note that the binary
> of the package is not linked with the OpenSSL (for license incompatibily
> reason) !
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Cédric Delfosse, http://cedric.freezope.org
> Jabber ID: ce...@ja...
>