[tor-project] Network team meeting notes, 11 Feb

Nick Mathewson nickm at torproject.org
Mon Feb 11 20:22:37 UTC 2019


Hi!

Transcript at: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2019/tor-meeting.2019-02-11-17.58.html

Notes below:

= Network team meeting pad! =

This week's team meeting is at Tuesday 22 January at 1800 UTC on
#tor-meeting on OFTC, because Monday is a US public holiday.

Welcome to our meeting!
First meeting each month: Tuesday at 2300 UTC
Other meetings each month: Mondays at 1800 UTC
On #tor-meeting on OFTC.

February schedule:
    * Monday 11 February at 1800 UTC
    * Monday 18 February at 1800 UTC
    * Monday 25 February at 1800 UTC

March schedule:
    * Tuesday 5 March at 2300 UTC


(This channel is logged while meetings are in progress.)
(See https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2017-September/001459.html
for background.)

Want to participate?  Awesome!  Here's what to do:
    1. If you have updates, enter them below, under your name.
    2. If you see anything you want to talk about in your updates, put
them in boldface!
    3. Show up to the IRC meeting and say hi!

After each week's meetings, the contents of this pad will be sent to
tor-project @ lists.torproject.org.  After that is done, the pad can
be used for the next week.

== Previous notes ==
(Search the list archive for older notes.)
8 Jan: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2019-January/002155.html
14 Jan: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2019-January/002170.html
22 Jan: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2019-January/002184.html

== Stuff to do every week =

* Let's check and update the roadmap.  What's done, and what's coming up?

We're using a kanban now:
https://storm.torproject.org/shared/_mx8PMGOHFBOximocl1gy3COvhLPr6k3Ja7JA1vNIXr


* Check reviewer assignments!

Here are the needs-review tickets, by reviewer:
    https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=needs_review&reviewer=!&max=300&col=id&col=summary&col=reviewer&col=status&col=type&col=priority&col=milestone&col=component&order=reviewer&report=82

Here are the outstanding reviews, oldest first:
    https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=needs_review&component=Core+Tor%2FTor&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=type&col=priority&col=milestone&col=changetime&col=reviewer&col=keywords&order=changetime

Including sbws:
    https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=needs_review&component=Core+Tor%2FTor&or&status=needs_review&component=Core+Tor%2Fsbws&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=type&col=priority&col=milestone&col=changetime&col=reviewer&col=keywords&order=changetime

* Also, let's check for things we need update on our spreadsheet!  Are
there important documents we should link to?  Things we should
archive?

* Check rotations at
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/NetworkTeam/TeamRotations
  Core Tor/sbws is now part of the bug triage, CI, and reviewer assignment roles

== Reminders ==

* Remember to "/me status: foo" at least once daily.
* Remember that our current code reviews should be done by end-of-week.
* Make sure you are in touch with everybody with whom you are doing
work for the next releases

* Remember to fill up actual point when you finish a task (as well as
update the estimate when starting the issue).
* Add planned PTO to the calendar
https://storm.torproject.org/shared/ISA5L5nH0Xu88iqSCx9ZjCXYSMKOBTdbUeWarbdGmxx

* Check other's people call for help in their entries.

-------------------------------
---- 11 February 2019
-------------------------------

== Announcements ==


== Discussion ==


== Proposed tickets ==

* Teor is bringing a proposal for proposed ticket
https://pad.riseup.net/p/network-team-triage-2018
  Reminder: please add points estimates to proposed tickets!

Please tag proposed tickets with 040-proposed or 041-proposed, and add
a points estimate (in days).

If the ticket needs to be added to the roadmap, put it on the list
below, so we can talk about it at the meeting.

=== 035-proposed ===

#29042    Error loading private key after 0.3.5.7 upgrade          needs_review
#28248    Add comments around rust compilation flags
accepted  <=== accepted if Nick can do it quickly.
#29134    Document the max number of v3 client auths I can make    new

=== 040-proposed ===

Capacity Estimate

TODO: turn capacity estimates into a script or spreadsheet

?? points of proposed tickets
?? points of accepted tickets

?? days left until the 0.4.0 release, approximately ?? * 0.36 = ??
coding days per person
(see below for calculations)

List of tickets that aren't on the roadmap

#29040 -- Tor crashes if ClientOnionAuthDir contains more than one
public key for a hidden service (new) <-- defer deciding until asn &
dgoulet input
#28363 -- Make a torrc option which prevents Tor from falling asleep
  Is this a duplicate of one of our Sponsor 8 dormant mode tickets?

Open 040-proposed tickets:
     https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/report/77

Open 040-proposed tickets with no points estimate:
    https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/report/78

=== 041-proposed ===

Capacity Estimate

TODO: turn capacity estimates into a script or spreadsheet

?? points of proposed tickets
?? points of accepted tickets

113 days left until the 0.4.1 feature freeze, approximately 40 coding
days per person, minus ?? days for 040 bugfixes
5/7 work days in week * 220/260 non-leave week days in year * 3/5
coding days in week = 0.36 coding days per calendar day
(coding days exclude reviews, admin, travel, meetings)

List of tickets that aren't on the roadmap

#25417 -- HSFETCH support for v3 Hidden Services (needs_review)
  Points needs asn or dgoulet's input, how much effort will it take us
to merge this code?
  Should we try for 0.4.1?

There's something subtly wrong with a bunch of our HSv3 IPv6 code:
<-- defer deciding until asn & dgoulet input
#26992 -- Add intro point IPv6 address to service descriptors (needs_revision)
#23588 -- Write fascist_firewall_choose_address_ls() and use it in
hs_get_extend_info_from_lspecs() (needs_revision)
#23576 -- Make service_intro_point_new() take a node instead of an
extend_info (needs_revision)
  I have tried to debug the issue for a few hours, but I didn't make
much progress.
  I expect it will take a few days to debug: let's defer these
tickets, and pick them up if we have time later in the release

There 79 tickets below, what do we do?

Open 041-proposed tickets:
    https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/report/75

Open 041-proposed tickets with no points estimate:
    https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/report/76

{79 tickets here; tabling them till Brussels.}

== Recommended links ==

Signal uses fixed-size, overlapping range requests to hide the exact
length of its previews:
    https://signal.org/blog/i-link-therefore-i-am/
    Could we use a similar technique in Tor Browser to hide sizes from
the network?
    (The application and the remote site know the real size.
Everything else just sees fixed-size HTTPS.)

How teams produce great outcomes (a long read, but a good one):
    https://the-composition.com/the-origins-of-opera-and-the-future-of-programming-bcdaf8fbe960

== Updates ==

NOTE NEW FORMAT!

Name:
    Week of XYZ (planned):
        - What you planned for last week.
    Week of XYZ (actual):
        - What you did last week.
    Week of ABC (planned):
        - What you're planning to do this week.
    Help with:

     - Something you may need help with.



PLEASE DO NOT BULK-DELETE THE OLD ENTRIES!

Leave the "Planned" parts!
Leave the parts for last week and this week!


gaba:

Week of 02/11 (planned):

- get roadmap into the wiki

- look at releases estimation

- gathering documentation on software development practices at the
network team <-- if you have anything documented send it my way


teor: (offline)

Week of 14 Jan (planned):
    High-Priority:
        - PrivCount proof of concept (#29004 and related tickets)
        - unit tests for extra-info documents
    Medium-Priority:
        - (no sbws reviews, I need to focus on PrivCount before the hackfest)
        - Sponsor 8 tasks - are these important enough to do anyway?
            - Ask metrics to monitor bootstrap speed
            - Tweak bootstrap settings to work when lots of fallbacks
are down (and also on networks that drop packets)

Week of 14 Jan (actual):
    High-Priority:
        - PrivCount proof of concept (#29004 and related tickets),
focused on bandwidth stats this week
        - Travel preparation / hackfest preparation
    Medium-Priority:
        - a small IPv6 review, some sbws reviews
        - some proposed tickets admin, and other admin

    Help with:


Nick:

Week of 4 Feb (actual):

- Implement a fast CSPRNG (#29023)

- Finish and publish proposal 300 (walking onions)

- Handle various merge-ready tickets

- [limited hours, to make up for extra hours in Brussels]

- Tag some critical 040 stuff.

- Read session notes from Brussels.


Week of 11 Feb (planned):

- Identify remaining 040-must stuff

- Fix some 040-must bugs; defer other 040 stuff.

- Write a proposal about correct way to do onionbalance in v3 onion services

- Maybe, write a proposal about "personalization" of the Tor network
to prevent test network crossover.

- Check OSS-Fuzz timeout issues to make sure they are false positives

- "Evaluate" bridge statistics. (#29269)

- Experiment with chutney & CI.



dgoulet:
  Week of 4 Feb (actual):
    - Went over BridgeDB architecture and infrastructure with sysrqb.
      Confirmed access also on the infra.
    - Discussed with Rob/pastly the KIST issue and finally opened #29427.
    - In part recovered from jetlag and 9 day work/Fosdem marathon in Brussels.
  Week of 11 Feb (planned):
    - Deploy a local BridgeDB so I can start using and testing it.
    - Continue working towards a solution for #29427.
    - Put prop#289 code in needs_review (#26288). Once #29023 is merged
      upstream, I'll modify to use it and it will be final.


Mike:

 Week of 2/04 (actual)
    - Worked on conflux flow control idea; made some progress but also
found more problems
    - Recovered from Brussels; took more out of me than I realized
  Week of 1/21 (planned)
    - Start working on #29204
    - Look into #29174
    - Catch


catalyst:
    week of 01/28 (2019-W05) (actual):
        - Brussels meeting
    week of 02/04 (2019-W06) (actual):
        - some time off to recover from Brussels
        - reviewing roadmaps
    week of 02/11 (2019-W07) (planned):
        - expense reporting
        - more review of #28226
        - other reviews
        - bug triage rotation

juga (offline):

Week 4 Feb (actual):
    - Add units to the bandwidth key-values in the bandwidth file
specification (#29326)
    - Commented the bandwidth file implementation in stem (#29332, #29333)
    - Remove three consecutive attempts to measure a relay (#29295)
    - Create an script to automate releases (#29294)
    - Report relays that sbws sees in the consensus, but never chooses
to test (#28566)
    - Report excluded results in a relay's bandwidth line (#28565)
    - Report relays that sbws wants to test, but the test doesn't work (#28567)
    - Started with Write technical overview on how sbws works(#29149)

Week 11 Feb (plan):
    - Register for the Demoday to present the bandwidth scanner
(https://prototypefund.de/demo-day/)
    - Continue with Include scanner country and Web server country in
the bandwidth file header (#29299)
    - Continue with Write technical overview on how sbws works(#29149)
    - Continue with Adapt bandwidth file classes to be compatible with
stem (descriptors, etc) documents (#29057)
    - Consider implementing When sbws stops making progress, log a
warning (#28652)
    - Consider implementing other children tickets to solve Monitor
relays that are not measured by each sbws instance (#28547)

Needs help with:
    - Reviewed #28668, but would like someone else to do a second
review, since i'm not familiar with the code
    - It'd be great if all the sbws needs_review tickets for 1.0
milestone would be reviewed in the next 1/2 weeks, so that i can
release 1.0 version before March (1.1 should be released at the end of
March).

asn:
   [Will be at dinner during meeting]
   Week of 02/04 (planned):
    - XXX
   Week of 02/04 (actual):
    - Attended FOSDEM. Had a few discussions about WTF-PAD with
attending researchers.
    - Recovering from meeting.
    - Cleared most of the email backlog from the past 2 weeks
    - Figured out some potential GSoC projects.
    - Toyed a bit with the tor-researchers mailing list.
    - Did expenses for brussels.
   Week of 02/11 (actual):
    - Lots of review backlog.
    - Start looking at February's roadmap.
    - Start a tor-researchers thread about WTF-PAD projects.
   Help with:
    - We good.

ahf:
Week of ... (actual)
    Sponsor 19:
        - Network team meeting in Brussels.
        - New hire started(!): onboarding, roadmapping, etc. in Brussels
        - Went to FOSDEM.
        - Anti-censorship team meeting: discussed workflow for new snowflake
          developers and delegated first code review tasks amongst the
team members.
        - Follow up on everything from the meeting: look at roadmapped
tickets, etc.
    Sponsor 8:
        - We discovered some spec changes hadn't been merged. That
have been fixed thanks to Nick.
    Misc:
        - Relaxed a bit after our meeting.
        - Sysadmin hiring seems to have reached its :-)
Week of 2/11 (planned)
    Sponsor 19:
        - Review dcf's uTLS changes to meek-lite.
        - Continue with architecture document in #28848
        - Create the goptlibext library after discussing with dcf on #28940
        - Make progress with NGO discussion with arma and cohosh.
    Misc (and might need some help with, but most likely from weasel):
        - Solve the Windows CI issue that I didn't finish before meeting.


More information about the tor-project mailing list