X-Git-Url: http://www.git.stargrave.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=Documentation%2Fdesign_notes.txt;h=3df5af3e3cf204c7954830d22a0de8b7fbd1d5e1;hb=174588f860f4ecda1896559928b6c72bf2857832;hp=6805f046d4370d62a3f535e4fee14cf15a679c09;hpb=aca047222a47e8d5277466d2dcc0618f12bdf8de;p=public-inbox.git diff --git a/Documentation/design_notes.txt b/Documentation/design_notes.txt index 6805f046..3df5af3e 100644 --- a/Documentation/design_notes.txt +++ b/Documentation/design_notes.txt @@ -1,20 +1,9 @@ -Design notes and philosophy ---------------------------- - -public-inbox spawned around some basic ideas --------------------------------------------- - -* Public, non-real-time, archivable communication is essential to - Free and Open Source software development. - -* Contributing to Free and Open Source projects should not require the - use of non-Free/non-Open Source services or software. - -* Graphical user interfaces should not be required for text-based - communication. +public-inbox design notes +------------------------- Challenges to running normal mailing lists ------------------------------------------ + 1) spam 2) bounce processing of invalid/bad email addresses 3) processing subscribe/unsubscribe requests @@ -29,15 +18,16 @@ Use existing infrastructure * public-inbox can coexist with existing mailing lists, any subscriber to the existing mailing list can begin delivering messages to - public-inbox-mda(1) + public-inbox-mda(1) or public-inbox-watch(1) * public-inbox uses SMTP for posting. Posting a message to a public-inbox - instance is no different than sending a message to any open mailing + instance is no different than sending a message to any _open_ mailing list. -* readers may continue using use their choice of mail clients and - mailbox formats, only learning a few commands of the ssoma(1) tool - is required. +* Existing spam filtering on an SMTP server is also effective on + public-inbox. + +* Readers may continue using use their choice of NNTP and mail clients. * Atom is a reasonable feed format for casual readers and is supported by a variety of feed readers. @@ -49,7 +39,7 @@ Why email? developers and users of Free Software should not rely on proprietary tools or services. -* Existing infrastrucuture, tools, and user familarity. +* Existing infrastructure, tools, and user familiarity. There is already a large variety of tools, clients, and email providers available. There are also many resources for users to run their own SMTP server on a domain they control. @@ -62,24 +52,107 @@ Why email? There is no need to ask the NSA for backups of your mail archives :) * git, one of the most widely-used version control systems, includes many - tools for for email: git-format-patch(1), git-send-email(1), git-am(1). - Furthermore, the development of git itself is based on the git mailing - list. + tools for for email, including: git-format-patch(1), git-send-email(1), + git-am(1), git-imap-send(1). Furthermore, the development of git itself + is based on the git mailing list: https://public-inbox.org/git/ + (or + http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/git/ + for Tor users) * Email is already the de-facto form of communication in many Free Software - communities. + communities.. * Fallback/transition to private email and other lists, in case the public-inbox host becomes unavailable, users may still directly email each other (or Cc: lists for related/dependent projects). -Notes ------ +Why git? +-------- + +* git is distributed and robust while being both fast and + space-efficient with text data. NNTP was considered, but does not + support delta-compression and places no guarantees on data/transport + integrity. However, read-only IMAP and NNTP gateways are implemented. + +* As of 2016, git is widely used and known to nearly all Free Software + developers. For non-developers it is packaged for all major GNU/Linux + and *BSD distributions. NNTP is not as widely-used nowadays, and + most IMAP clients do not have good support for read-only mailboxes. + +Why perl 5? +----------- + +* Perl 5 is widely available on modern *nix systems with good a history + of backwards and forward compatibility. + +* git and SpamAssassin both use it, so it should be one less thing for + admins to install and waste disk space with. + +* Distributing compiled binaries has higher costs for storage/cache + space is required for each architecture. Having a runnable, + source-only distribution means any user already has access to all + of our source. + +Laziness +-------- + +* Stick to dependencies available in Debian main, this should make it + easier for potential users to install, and easier for distro + maintainers to pick up. + +* A list server being turned into an SMTP spam relay and being + blacklisted while an admin is asleep is scary. + Sidestep that entirely by having clients pull. -* Expose Message-ID in HTML views to encourage replies from drive-by - contributors +* Eric has a great Maildir+inotify-based Bayes training setup + going back many years. Document, integrate and publicize it for + public-inbox usage, encouraging other admins to use it (it works + as long as admins read their public-inbox). + +* Custom, difficult-for-Bayes requires custom anti-spam rules. + We may steal rules from the Debian listmasters: + svn://anonscm.debian.org/pkg-listmaster + +* Full archives are easily distributable with git, so somebody else + can take over the list if we give up. Anybody may also run an SMTP + notifier/delivery service based on the archives. + +* Avoids bikeshedding about web UI decisions, GUI-lovers can write their + own GUI-friendly interfaces (HTML or native) based on public archives. + +Web notes +--------- + +* Getting users to install/run any new tool is difficult. + The web views must be easily read/cache/mirror-able. + +* There may also be a significant number of webmail users without + an MUA or feed reader; so a web view is necessary. + +* Expose Message-ID in web views to encourage replies from drive-by + contributors. + +* Raw text endpoint allows users to write client-side endpoints + without hosting the data themselves (or on a different server). + +What sucks about public-inbox +----------------------------- + +* Lack of push notification. On the other hand, feeds seem popular. + +* some (mostly GUI) mail clients cannot set In-Reply-To headers + properly without the original message. + +* marketing - as it should: + +Scalability notes +----------------- + +See the public-inbox-v2-format(5) manpage for all the scalability +problems solved. Copyright --------- -Copyright 2013, Eric Wong and all contributors. -License: AGPLv3 or later + +Copyright all contributors +License: AGPL-3.0+