ocflib 2024.4.21

libraries for account and server management

ocflib

ocflib is a Python library for working with Open Computing Facility services (in particular, accounts and server management).

The library targets Python 3.5.3 and 3.7 (the versions available in Debian stretch and buster).

The goal of the library is to make it easier to re-use OCF python code. In the past, code was split between approve, atool, create, chpass, sorry, signat, etc., which made it difficult to do things like share common password requirements.

What belongs here

In general, code which can be re-used should be here, but standalone applications or binaries shouldn't. For example, ocfweb uses ocflib code to change passwords and create accounts, but the Django web app doesn't belong here.

Using on OCF

ocflib is installed by Puppet on the OCF, so you can simply do things like import ocflib.lab.stats from the system python3 installation. We don't install it to python2 site-packages.

We build a Debian package which is installed by Puppet. We also publish new versions to PyPI, which is useful because it allows easy installation into virtualenvs.

Note about lockfiles

This repository includes a poetry.lock file. Lockfiles are usually used to ensure that the exact same versions of dependencies are installed across different machines. However, as this is a library, we don't want to force downstream users to use the exact same versions of dependencies as us, and indeed, the lockfile is ignored when distributing. We still include it in the repository to make it easier to develop, test, and debug ocflib.

Installing locally

For Testing Changes

Development of ocflib uses Poetry. The easiest way to test changes to ocflib is to let Poetry manage the virtual environment for you:

poetry install
poetry shell

Now, if you import something from ocflib, you'll be using the version from your working copy.

Testing and linting

We use pytest to test our code, and pre-commit to lint it. You should run make test before pushing to run both.

The tests directory contains automated tests which you're encouraged to add to (and not break). The tests-manual directory contains scripts intended for testing.

Using pre-commit

We use pre-commit to lint our code before commiting. While some of the rules might seem a little arbitrary, it helps keep the style consistent, and ensure annoying things like trailing whitespace don't creep in.

You can simply run make install-hooks to install the necessary git hooks; once installed, pre-commit will run every time you commit.

Alternatively, if you'd rather not install any hooks, you can simply use make test as usual, which will also run the hooks.

Troubleshooting: Cracklib Error

If you're trying to run make install-hooks on ocfweb (or related repos) and get this error:

./_cracklib.c:40:10: fatal error: 'crack.h' file not found
  #include <crack.h>
           ^~~~~~~~~
  1 error generated.

The issue relates to the cracklib package not finding the necessary header files to install. Make sure cracklib is installed on your machine (https://github.com/cracklib/cracklib, if you're on Mac, brew install cracklib).

Deploying changes

Deploying changes involves:

• Running tests and linters
• Pushing a new version to PyPI
• Building a Debian package
• Pushing the Debian package to our internal apt

Jenkins will automatically perform all of these steps for you on every push, including automatically generating a new version number. As long as make test passes, your code will be automatically deployed. You can monitor the progress of your deploy here.