Welcome! This page intends to house all the information admins need to maintain pm.org services. Suggested improvements welcome via GitHub
Robert and Ask are the server kings. They control all the hardware and services. They keep the ships afloat.
When anyone needs help with anything Perl Mongers they create a github Issue or they email support(at)pm(dot)org which opens a ticket in RT. Some requests are valid, some are bad ideas or conflicts between group leaders, and some are spam. Those tickets need to be waded through, as frequently as possible, by the pm.org admin volunteers. Everything there is to know about being a pm.org admin volunteer is right here, below.
Working the tickets involves pulling miscellaneous levers to fulfill the valid requests (XML, git, MailMan, DNS, RT, TT site flushes, lat/long XML for Google map, etc.). I (jhannah) am happy to train new volunteers.
Every communication we have with anyone around the world is recorded in github or RT for review. Constructive criticism is always welcome.
To: dns@perl.org Subject: paderborn.pm.org -> 216.52.237.133 New PM group. Thanks!
See https://github.com/perlorg/www.pm.org/blob/master/README
https://github.com/perlorg/www.pm.org
rmlist
, so if you don't have one email pm_admins(at)pm(dot)orgCron jobs run every 20 minutes or so to implement any new groups you add.
http://rt.perl.org/rt3/ (queue: pm-org-support)
Group leaders open a new support ticket by sending an email to any of these equivalent addresses:
In order to get a DNS change to happen, send an email to dns(at)perl(dot)org
with information about the change you want made. You'll get an auto-reply ticket number back from RT. Things they do:
We can also provide NS records (aka delegation) of foo.pm.org to other nameservers.
For established groups....
Sample Message
To: dns@perl.org Subject: aberdeen.pm.org -> 216.52.237.133 New Perl Monger group. Thanks!
https://github.com/perlorg/www.pm.org/blob/master/perl_mongers.xml
All pm.org services are (or should be) driven by our single, master XML file. That file is perl_mongers.xml
. The format is defined by perl_mongers.dtd (out of date). When the .xml is updated, programs read the .xml and write that info out to www/groups.
Q: What does a status mlb or leb mean?
A: Dave Cross, November 2004: These are left over from when I was tracking down all of the groups in 2002. I emailed all of the group leaders to check if the group still existed. "leb" stands for "leaders email bouncing". In some cases I then went on to try and email the group's mailing list. "mlb" stands for "mailing list bouncing". I should probably change all of those statuses to "inactive" now.
Q: Is there a difference between inactive and sleeping?
A: Dave Cross, November 2004: Inactive means that the group is basically dead. There's no interest in keeping the group going. I keep the records around because someone might come along in the future.
Sleeping means that there are one or two people who want to keep the group running, but they are having trouble finding recruits. The main difference is that the xml program generates listing pages for groups with a status of "active" or "sleeping" - but not for "inactive".
Q: If status is not present, does that mean inactive?
A: Dave Cross, November 2004: Yep.
So you want to be as super-awesome as me? -grin- Here's how I get my ticket fighting mojo on.
--jhannah, 12:37, 19 July 2008 (UTC)
You use the hell out of your web browser fighting tickets. I open a single Firefox window, and then open many tabs that I can click back and forth in as needed. My tab list:
So I basically run those 5-7 tabs constantly. The last two keep closing and being re-opened for each new ticket I start work on. Overall the tabs save me a ton of time, as all those resources I use ticket after ticket after ticket are already up and ready.
I use OS X, so I have 2-3 Terminals running all the time, accessing my local machine.
Terminal 1''' sits inside perl_mongers.xml
, changing it with vi. Setting this up the first time goes like this:
Terminal.app mkdir src cd src svn co https://svn.perl.org/pm-admin/trunk perlmongers cd perlmongers ln -s /Volumes/admin/groups/www www vi perl_mongers.xml
The symbolic link above does its magic once the WebDAV below is mounted, allowing you to run bin/xml
to magically update the server.
Terminal 2 sits inside the admin WebDAV mount. Launching it looks like this:
Finder | Go | Connect To Server... | https://groups.pm.org/admin/ Terminal.app cd /Volumes/admin/config vi groupfile (and other config files)
Terminal 3 just kind of sits on my local computer doing DNS lookups. Checking if people's DNS change requests are valid / working and what-not.
To launch emails to dns(at)perl(dot)org
requesting DNS changes. I also glance through the emails from RT, but tend to read and update the tickets online instead of via email.
So once in a blue moon (shame on me) when I sit down to pound tickets here's what I do:
/admin
via WebDAV.cd src/perlmongers; svn update
vi perl_mongers.xml
until it begs for mercy.svn commit
bin/xml
will create new ones. (It doesn't overwrite existing files. (A speed optimization?)). So cd www/groups; rm 117.html 119.html 343.html ...
perl bin/xml
cp perl_mongers.xml www/groups/perl_mongers.xml
Congrats! You're a certified ticket ninja! Use your awesome powers only for good. :)
--jhannah 13:07, 19 July 2008 (UTC)