Hello all, Given that this has been keeping me from packaging for Debian some software I developed at Stanford, and I'm getting more requests for packages, I will try to get past my mixed feelings of obstinance and guilt and just ask for advice or help. :)
In 2007, to replace our legacy Kerberos keytab distribution system, I wrote a new system that allows users of a Kerberos realm who don't have administrative credentials to view, download, and manage selected keytabs without having to maintain monster kadmin ACL files that only sort of work. We then expanded its use to cover any arbitrary piece of secure data that we wanted to manage centrally with rich ACLs, such as database passwords, X.509 private keys, and so forth. We've been using this heavily for the past five years, and it's pretty widely known at Stanford. I'm starting to see other sites deploying it, and am starting to get requests for Debian packages (which we have internally). The problem is that the software is called wallet, both the software itself and the primary client binary that users invoke. And, of course, we have a bunch of documentation and automation at Stanford that assumes that name. I *did* do some degree of due diligence before I called it that, including searches for other software with the same name in Debian or outside, and I didn't find anything. I think that's still the case for the binary name; Google Wallet, Wallet for Mac, and a few other things on mobile platforms turn up now, but I don't think there's another UNIX/Linux binary of that name. But, of course, it's still not a very unique name. So, the first question is: should I rename this software to something else before packaging it for Debian? I kind of feel like the answer is probably yes (see the recent node discussion), but on the other hand it's going to be a big pain for me and for users at Stanford, so I'm feeling obstinate about it. So here's your chance to talk me into doing the right thing. :) The next release would be the 1.0 release and the release that I'd push more publicly, so if I'm going to rename it, now's the time. The second question is: if I should rename it, what should I call it? Does anyone have any suggestions that are more unique but that still preserve the property of being a reasonably easy-to-remember command-line tool for unsophisticated users? I really don't want something like "Stanford wallet" because it's intended to be a general, extensible solution to enterprise password and key management, and I don't want to get into the various trademark issues and so forth that are involved in plastering Stanford's name on it. For those who are curious, the upstream web site is at: http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/wallet/ and the current package metadata for our internal packages is: Package: wallet-client Architecture: any Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends} Description: Kerberos-authenticated secure data management client The wallet is a system for managing secure data, authorization rules to retrieve or change that data, and audit rules for documenting actions taken on that data. Objects of various types may be stored in the wallet or generated on request and retrieved by authorized users. The wallet tracks ACLs, metadata, and trace information. It uses Kerberos authentication. One of the object types it supports is Kerberos keytabs, making it suitable as a user-accessible front-end to Kerberos kadmind with richer ACL and metadata operations. . This package contains the wallet client, which talks to a remote wallet server to store, download, and manage objects. Package: wallet-server Architecture: all Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${perl:Depends}, libdbi-perl, libdbd-sqlite3-perl | libdbd-mysql-perl, remctl-server Recommends: krb5-user | libheimdal-kadm5-perl, remctl-server (>= 2.14) Suggests: libnet-remctl-perl Description: Kerberos-authenticated secure data management server The wallet is a system for managing secure data, authorization rules to retrieve or change that data, and audit rules for documenting actions taken on that data. Objects of various types may be stored in the wallet or generated on request and retrieved by authorized users. The wallet tracks ACLs, metadata, and trace information. It uses Kerberos authentication. One of the object types it supports is Kerberos keytabs, making it suitable as a user-accessible front-end to Kerberos kadmind with richer ACL and metadata operations. . This package contains the wallet server, which runs under remctl, maintains the database of object metadata and secure objects, and responds to requests from the wallet client. Package: keytab-backend Architecture: all Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${perl:Depends}, krb5-admin-server, perl, remctl-server Description: Provide existing MIT Kerberos keytabs via remctl keytab-backend is a service that runs under remctld and allows authenticated clients to download Kerberos keytabs from an MIT Kerberos KDC without changing the key stored in the Kerberos KDC. It must run on the same host as the Kerberos KDC and uses kadmin.local to extract the existing key. It applies additional ACLs to limit which keys may be extracted in this way. This interface is not needed for Heimdal. -- Russ Allbery (r...@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/877gs55rmw....@windlord.stanford.edu