Re: [RFC PATCH v1] telemetry design overview (part 1)

From: Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 9, 2018, 05:03 UTC
Message-ID: <CACsJy8BPhzs5M4peHN2HczmDxGmAuKZ0corzT66i+rJ2UQRTHQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <87fu1w53af.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com>

On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 12:22 AM Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 15 quoted lines

>
>
> On Fri, Jun 08 2018, Johannes Sixt wrote:
>
> > Am 08.06.2018 um 18:00 schrieb Thomas Braun:
> >> I for my part would much rather prefer that to be a compile time
> >> option so that I don't need to check on every git update on windows
> >> if  this is now enabled or not.
> >
> > This exactly my concern, too! A compile-time option may make it a good
> > deal less worrisome.
>
> Can you elaborate on how someone who can maintain inject malicious code
> into your git package + config would be thwarted by this being some
> compile-time option, wouldn't they just compile it in?

Look at this from a different angle. This is driven by the needs to collect telemetry in _controlled_ environment (mostly server side, I guess) and it should be no problem to make custom builds there for you. Not making it a compile-time option could force [1] linux distro to carry this function to everybody even if they don't use it (and it's kinda dangerous to misuse if you don't anonymize the data properly). I also prefer this a compile time option.

[1] Of course many distros can choose to patch it out. But it's the same argument as bringing this option in in the first place: you guys already have that code in private and now want to put it in stock git to reduce maintenance cost, why add extra cost on linux distro maintenance?

-- 
Duy