

Show HN: hubot-control - webapp for managing hubots - spajus
https://github.com/spajus/hubot-control
A rails app for managing self-hosted hubot installations.
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oulipo
This is awesome, but it should be easy to actually create a broader framework
that allows one to control & monitor processes that run scripts on servers in
general, & not just Hubot -- Hubot could be just an adapter for the more
general tool, do you think this is feasible? :)

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drewcoo
The problem there is that every new service needs its own glue code. I know
there are companies (that I'm not shilling for) that are trying to create
something like "universal glue code" but I'm not so sure those proprietary
solutions are the right way. That seems to be against "the Unix way".

I openly admit that I'm not smart enough. I've thought about it for a while
and I'm flummoxed. What's a good way to make glue code easier?

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oulipo
I think this is all about API & modularity, if you define a general API for
your monitoring tool (eg. how should an adapter notify you when there is a new
job, etc), you can then write an adapter for Hubot, and everyone that has its
own solution can write an adapter for it & glue it to your code :)

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angersock
What license are you releasing this under?

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spajus
Good question, never thought about licensing until it was needed. I'm thinking
GPL v3.

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angersock
Could you be talked into Apache or Modified BSD?

Comedy answer: WTFPL (though nobody likes that guy).

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spajus
Correct me if I'm wrong, but GPL protects free software from being converted
from free and open into proprietary shareware, and you can use it anywhere.

Why would Apache or Modified BSD be better?

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angersock
In the strictest sense (at least how I look at it), Modified BSD (or BSD
family stuff in general) is freer because it places no moral burdens on me to
share with others should I so not choose. Granted, I'm being a greedy
antisocial shithead, but maximum freedom ought allow that.

Apache is similar, except that it also attempts to say "hey, you are allowed
to use whatever patents I control that would be infringed here".

License folks feel free to correct me on this point.

~~~
spajus
When choosing a license, I always remember this rant by Zed Shaw:
[http://zedshaw.com/essays/why_i_gpl.html](http://zedshaw.com/essays/why_i_gpl.html)

This time was no exception. :)

~~~
angersock
Looks good!

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drnex
Nice!

Is it relevant/secure for heroku hubots?

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spajus
It was built for use within your company / personal server - there is no
authentication mechanism, so you have to make sure that it cannot be accessed
from outside without at least HTTP Basic Auth.

I haven't tried running it on Heroku, it would be insecure, and I guess Heroku
infrastructure would forbid some of system calls hubot-control app is doing,
like checking pids, killing processes.

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nickporter
we need to go deeper

