User:Yan/Dev

Welcome, digital archivists, to Archive Team! Programmers, developers, engineers… You're here because the clown is going to delete your data—and you're going to stop that. So, who is ready to rescue some history?

Developer Documentation

• Infrastructure overview
• Source code repositories
• Warrior overview
• Starting a new project
• Writing Seesaw grab scripts
• Setting up a tracker
• Setting up Rsync and Megawarc Factory
• Project management and leadership

Infrastructure overview

The Archive Team infrastructure is a distributed web processing system used for distributed preservation of service attacks.

Component Overview

Figure	Description
1	Website in Danger
2	Warrior
3	Tracker
4	Staging Server
5	Internet Archive

Website in Danger

The website in danger is typically a website exhibiting combinations of

• acquihire
• mass layoffs
• neglect, decay, unhealthy, or owners missing in action
• political and legal issues
• robots.txt exclusion file that forbids crawling by Wayback Machine (whether intentionally or unintentionally)
• cultural significance

Warrior

The Warrior is client code run by volunteers that grabs/scrapes the content of the website in danger.

Websites often implement throttling systems to protect themselves for various reasons such as spam or server load. Typical systems use IP address bans. As such, many Warriors, running on many IP addresses, are needed.

Content is usually grabbed and saved in WARC files.

Tracker

The Tracker is server code run by "core" Archive Team volunteers. The Tracker assigns what the Warrior should download and provides a leaderboard.

Staging Server

Staging servers are typically servers running Rsync often run by "core" volunteers. Warriors upload WARC files to these hosts. The hosts queue and package up the WARC files into large WARC files (Megawarcs). Then, the Megawarcs are uploaded to the Internet Archive under the Archive Team collection.

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a digital library and archive. It is different from other hosting services because they are not a distribution platform. If there is an legal issue, items are "darked" instead of deleted.

Items are ingested by the Wayback Machine if it

• has warc.gz files,
• has a "web" media type,
• and is under the Archive Team collection.

Developer Documentation

• Infrastructure overview
• Source code repositories
• Warrior overview
• Starting a new project
• Writing Seesaw grab scripts
• Setting up a tracker
• Setting up Rsync and Megawarc Factory
• Project management and leadership

Source code repositories

Fork me on GitHub! File and triage issues, fix bugs, refactor code, submit pull requests… all welcome! Discussion in #archiveteam-dev (on EFnet).

See this link for all issues.

The warrior uses the following repos:

Client code

Client code includes code that the Warrior executes.

warrior3 - bootstrap and tools to build the image

Bootstrap code that is pulled from GitHub by the appliance and starts a docker container

archiveteam/warrior-dockerfile - the container

Instructions to boostrap the docker container

warrior2 - warrior runner code

Main code that runs inside of the docker container

seesaw-kit

Library that helps build grab scripts, the web interface, and pipeline engine for the warrior. The name "seesaw" comes from its original behavior: download, upload, and repeat.

Projects

Projects are in separate repositories typically with the name -grab as a suffix.

Item lists that are loaded into the tracker are sometimes saved into a repo with -items as a suffix. Scripts to build searchable index HTML pages are usually suffixed with -index.

Server code

Server code includes code that the Tracker executes.

universal-tracker - Ruby

The server of which the Seesaw contacts

warrior-hq - Ruby

The server of which the warrior appliances contact for project metadata

archiveteam-megawarc-factory - shell

The scripts that bundles the WARC files.

URLTeam code

URLTeam code is independent from the tracker and warrior.

Old:

tinyback

The client code that scrapes the shortlinks. It includes a pipeline shim to run the code.

tinyarchive

The server code for the tracker.

New:

terroroftinytown-client-grab

A pipeline shim to run the code.

terroroftinytown

The code for both the client library and tracker.

Misc

warrior-dockerfile

Dockerfile that runs the warrior inside a Docker container.

ArchiveBot - Ruby, Python, Lua

An IRC bot for archiving websites.

wget-lua - C, Lua

A patched version of Wget for web crawling.

standalone-readme-template - Markdown

A template for readme files included in grab repositories.

archiveteam-dev-env - Shell

Ubuntu preseed for a developer environment for ArchiveTeam projects.

wpull - Python

A Wget-compatible web downloader/crawler.

Developer Documentation

• Infrastructure overview
• Source code repositories
• Warrior overview
• Starting a new project
• Writing Seesaw grab scripts
• Setting up a tracker
• Setting up Rsync and Megawarc Factory
• Project management and leadership

Warrior overview

The Warrior is a virtual machine appliance used by volunteers to participate in projects.

Packages

The Warrior image is built off Alpine Linux 3.6.2:

• kernel 4.9.32
• the virtual machine image is prepared using the stage.sh script and contains a pre-installed /root/boot.sh script that downloads and boots the warrior.

The warrior itself runs in a docker container running Ubuntu 16.04 that contains

• Python 3.5.2, pip 8.1.1
• Perl v5.22.1
• gcc 5.4.0, make 4.1, bash 4.3.48
• curl 7.47.0

Bootup

The virtual machine is self-updating. It does the following:

1. Start the virtual machine
2. Linux boots
3. boot.sh downloads and launches /root/startup.sh
4. startup.sh prepares and runs a docker container with the warrior runner
5. Point your web browser to http://localhost:8001 and go.

Logging into the Warrior

To log into the warrior,

1. Press Alt+F3 (or press Alt+Right).
2. The username is root and the password is archiveteam
3. You are now logged in as root.
4. Check the docker container with docker ps. This will give you docker container identifier, among others.
5. Enter the inside of the docker container with docker exec -it identifier /bin/bash

Testing Core Warrior Code

Since the Warrior pulls from GitHub, it is important to commit only stable changes into the master branch. Recommended Git branching practices use a development branch.

To test core Warrior code, you can switch from the master branch to the development branch. The Warrior will fetch the corresponding seesaw-kit repository branch.

To change branches,

1. Log in as root
2. Execute cd /home/warrior/warrior-code2
3. Execute sudo -u warrior git checkout development
4. Execute reboot

By the same route you can return your warrior to the master branch.

The code for each project is stored in /home/warrior/projects/<PROJECTNAME>/

Developer Documentation

• Infrastructure overview
• Source code repositories
• Warrior overview
• Starting a new project
• Writing Seesaw grab scripts
• Setting up a tracker
• Setting up Rsync and Megawarc Factory
• Project management and leadership

Starting a new project

Starting a new project is a giant leap into getting things done.

Website Structure

Take a good look at how the website is structured:

• Is everything hosted under one domain name?
• Is there a throttling system?
• How can I discover usernames or page IDs?
• Is there an API?
• Is there a sitemap.xml?
• Can I guess URLs by incrementing a value?
• Does disabling cookies or using specific cookies affect anything?
• Does the website break if you make special requests?
• Can you Google site:example.com for some URLs?
  • Hint: site:example.com inurl:show_thread
• Is it a video? Try get-flash-videos

JavaScript

JavaScript is a pain.

• Check to see if there's a noscript or mobile version.
• Use a web inspector to observe its behavior and simulate POST requests made by the scripts.
• Scrape URLs from JavaScript templates with regular expressions.

Static Assets

Websites sometimes do not host static media such as images and stylesheets under their primary domain name. Be sure to take those under consideration.

IP Address Bans & Throttling

Find out if there is IP address banning. Use a sacrificial IP address if you need to.

Items

Once you determine the website structure, you need to determine how to split up work units up efficiently by an item name. An item name is a short string describing the work unit, for example, a username.

Because the Tracker uses Redis as its database, memory usage is a concern. The maximum number of items supported ranges from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 depending on the item name length.

• If a user site is USERNAME.example.com, a good candidate is USERNAME.
  • Be careful of large subdomain sites.
• If the content is by some numerical ID, consider whether ranges of IDs are appropriate.

Call for Action

• ProTip™: Get things done.

Wiki Page

Ensure there is documentation on this wiki about the project.

Include:

• an overview of the website
• the shutdown notice
• "how to help" instructions
• a (future) link to the archives

Writing Grab Scripts

If you do not have permissions to create Archive Team's repository, please ask on IRC.

For detailed information about what goes inside grab scripts, take a look at writing Seesaw scripts.

Tracker Access

If you do not have permission to access the Tracker, please see Tracker#People.

IRC Channel

Archive Team uses per-project IRC channels to reduce noise in the main channel. It also serves as a technical support channel.

IRC channel names must be humorous.

• If an employee of the website in danger appears on the channel, please do cooperate.

Project Management

Successful projects are a result of successful management. See Project Management for details.

Getting Attention

Many Twitter followers? Got connections? Become a loudmouth!

Otherwise, take initiative yourself and encourage other team members to take initiative.

Developer Documentation

• Infrastructure overview
• Source code repositories
• Warrior overview
• Starting a new project
• Writing Seesaw grab scripts
• Setting up a tracker
• Setting up Rsync and Megawarc Factory
• Project management and leadership

Writing Seesaw grab scripts

Writing a Seesaw content grab script is the most challenging and fun aspect of the infrastructure.

What a Archive Team Project Contains

Once the Git repository has been created, be sure to include the following files:

pipeline.py

This file contains the Seesaw client code for the project.

README.{md,rst,txt}

This file contains

* brief information about the project

* instructions on how to manually run the scripts

* A template is available here: standalone-readme-template

[Project Name Here].lua (optional)

This is the Lua script used by Wget-Lua.

warrior-install.sh (optional)

This file is executed by the Warrior to install extra libraries needed by the project. Example: punchfork-grab warrior-install.sh.

wget-lua-warrior (optional)

This executable is a build of Wget-Lua for the warrior environment.

get-wget-lua.sh (optional)

Build scripts for Wget-Lua for those running scripts manually.

The repository is pulled in by the Warrior or manually be those who want to run the scripts manually.

Writing a pipeline.py (Seesaw Client)

The Seesaw client is a specific set of tasks that must be done within an item. Think of it as a template of instructions. Typically, the file is called pipeline.py. The pipeline file uses the Seesaw Library.

The pipeline file will typically use Wget with Lua scripting. Wget+Lua is a web crawler.

The Lua script is provided as an argument to Wget within the pipeline file. It controls fine grain operations within Wget such as rejecting unneeded URLs or adding more URLs as they are discovered.

The goal of the pipeline is to download, make WARC files, and upload them.

Quick Definitions

item

a work unit

pipeline

a series of tasks in an item

task

a step in getting the item done

Recommend reading.

Installation

You will need:

• Python 2.6/2.7
• Lua
• Wget with Lua hooks

Typically, you can install these on Ubuntu by running:

sudo apt-get install build-essential lua5.1 liblua5.1-0-dev python python-setuptools python-dev openssl libssl-dev python-pip make libgnutls-dev zlib1g-dev
sudo pip install seesaw

You will also need Wget with Lua. There is an Ubuntu PPA or you can build it yourself:

./get-wget-lua.sh

Grab a recent build script from here.

The pipeline file

The pipeline file typically includes:

• A line that checks the minimum seesaw version required
• Copy-and-pasted monkey patches if needed
• A routine to find Wget Lua
• A version number in the form of YYYYMMDD.NN
• Misc constants
• Custom Tasks:
  • PrepareDirectories
  • MoveFiles
• Project information saved into the project variable
• Instructions on how to deal with the item saved into the pipeline variable
• An undeclared downloader variable which will be filled in by the Seesaw library

It is important to remember that each Task is a template on how to deal with each Item. Specific item variables should not be stored on a Task, but rather, it should be saved onto the item: item["my_data"] = "hello".

Minimum Seesaw Version Check

if StrictVersion(seesaw.__version__) < StrictVersion("0.0.15"):
    raise Exception("This pipeline needs seesaw version 0.0.15 or higher.")

This check is used to prevent manual script users from using an obsolete version of Seesaw. The Warrior will always upgrade to the latest Seesaw if dictated in the Tracker's projects.json file.

Version 0.0.15 is the supported legacy version, but it is suggested to rely on the latest version of Seesaw as specified in the Seesaw Python Package Index.

Monkey Patches

Monkey patches such as AsyncPopenFixed are only provided for legacy versions of Seesaw.

Routine to find Wget-Lua

WGET_LUA = find_executable(
    "Wget+Lua",
    ["GNU Wget 1.14.lua.20130523-9a5c"],
    [
        "./wget-lua",
        "./wget-lua-warrior",
        "./wget-lua-local",
        "../wget-lua",
        "../../wget-lua",
        "/home/warrior/wget-lua",
        "/usr/bin/wget-lua"
    ]
)

if not WGET_LUA:
    raise Exception("No usable Wget+Lua found.")

This routine is a sanity check that aborts the script early if Wget+Lua has not been found. Omit this if needed.

Script Version

VERSION = "20131129.00"

This constant, to be used within pipeline, is sent to the Tracker and should be embedded within the WARC files. It is used for accounting purposes:

• Tracker admins can check the logs for faulty grab scripts and requeue the faulty items.
• Tracker admins can require the user to upgrade the scripts.

Always change the version whenever you make a non-cosmetic change. Note, this constant is only a variable. Be sure that it is used within pipeline.

Misc constants

USER_AGENT = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.20.25 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.4 Safari/533.20.27 ArchiveTeam"
TRACKER_ID = "posterous"
TRACKER_HOST = "tracker.archiveteam.org"

Constants like USER_AGENT and TRACKER_HOST are good programming practices for clean coding.

Check IP address

This task checks the IP address to ensure the user is not behind a proxy or firewall. Sometimes websites are censored or the user is behind a captive portal (like a coffeeshop wifi) which will ruin results.

class CheckIP(SimpleTask):
    def __init__(self):
        SimpleTask.__init__(self, "CheckIP")
        self._counter = 0

    def process(self, item):
        ip_str = socket.gethostbyname('example.com')
        if ip_str not in ['1.2.3.4', '1.2.3.6']:
            item.log_output('Got IP address: %s' % ip_str)
            item.log_output(
                'Are you behind a firewall/proxy? That is a big no-no!')
            raise Exception(
                'Are you behind a firewall/proxy? That is a big no-no!')

        # Check only occasionally
        if self._counter <= 0:
            self._counter = 10
        else:
            self._counter -= 1

PrepareDirectories & MoveFiles

class PrepareDirectories(SimpleTask):
  """
  A task that creates temporary directories and initializes filenames.

  It initializes these directories, based on the previously set item_name:
    item["item_dir"] = "%{data_dir}/%{item_name}"
    item["warc_file_base"] = "%{warc_prefix}-%{item_name}-%{timestamp}"

  These attributes are used in the following tasks, e.g., the Wget call.

  * set warc_prefix to the project name.
  * item["data_dir"] is set by the environment: it points to a working
    directory reserved for this item.
  * use item["item_dir"] for temporary files
  """
  def __init__(self, warc_prefix):
    SimpleTask.__init__(self, "PrepareDirectories")
    self.warc_prefix = warc_prefix

  def process(self, item):
    item_name = item["item_name"]
    dirname = "/".join(( item["data_dir"], item_name ))

    if os.path.isdir(dirname):
      shutil.rmtree(dirname)
    os.makedirs(dirname)

    item["item_dir"] = dirname
    item["warc_file_base"] = "%s-%s-%s" % (self.warc_prefix, item_name, time.strftime("%Y%m%d-%H%M%S"))

    open("%(item_dir)s/%(warc_file_base)s.warc.gz" % item, "w").close()


class MoveFiles(SimpleTask):
  """
  After downloading, this task moves the warc file from the
  item["item_dir"] directory to the item["data_dir"], and removes
  the files in the item["item_dir"] directory.
  """
  def __init__(self):
    SimpleTask.__init__(self, "MoveFiles")

  def process(self, item):
    os.rename("%(item_dir)s/%(warc_file_base)s.warc.gz" % item,
              "%(data_dir)s/%(warc_file_base)s.warc.gz" % item)

    shutil.rmtree("%(item_dir)s" % item)

These tasks are "tradition" (meaning, they are copied-and-pasted and modified to fit) for managing temporary files.

Note, PrepareDirectories makes an empty warc.gz file since later tasks expect a warc.gz file.

project variable

project = Project(
  title = "Posterous",
  project_html = """
    <img class="project-logo"
      alt="Posterous Logo"
      src="http://archiveteam.org/images/6/6c/Posterous_logo.png"
      height="50"/>
    <h2>Posterous.com
      <span class="links">
        <a href="http://www.posterous.com/">Website</a> · 
        <a href="http://tracker.archiveteam.org/posterous/">Leaderboard</a>
      </span>
    </h2>
    <p><i>Posterous</i> is closing April, 30th, 2013</p>
  """
   , utc_deadline = datetime.datetime(2013, 04, 30, 23, 59, 0)
)

This variable is used within the Warrior to show the HTML at the top of the page.

Note, this could be potentially be used to show important messages using <p class="projectBroadcastMessage"></p>. However, manual script users will not see anything related to this variable so you may want to print out any important messages instead.

pipeline variable

Here's a real chunk of code.

pipeline = Pipeline(
  # request an item from the tracker (using the universal-tracker protocol)
  # the downloader variable will be set by the warrior environment
  #
  # this task will wait for an item and sets item["item_name"] to the item name
  # before finishing
  GetItemFromTracker("http://%s/%s" % (TRACKER_HOST, TRACKER_ID), downloader, VERSION),

  # create the directories and initialize the filenames (see above)
  # warc_prefix is the first part of the warc filename
  #
  # this task will set item["item_dir"] and item["warc_file_base"]
  PrepareDirectories(warc_prefix="posterous.com"),

  # execute Wget+Lua
  #
  # the ItemInterpolation() objects are resolved during runtime
  # (when there is an Item with values that can be added to the strings)
  WgetDownload([ WGET_LUA,
      "-U", USER_AGENT,
      "-nv",
      "-o", ItemInterpolation("%(item_dir)s/wget.log"),
      "--no-check-certificate",
      "--output-document", ItemInterpolation("%(item_dir)s/wget.tmp"),
      "--truncate-output",
      "-e", "robots=off",
      "--rotate-dns",
      "--recursive", "--level=inf",
      "--page-requisites",
      "--span-hosts", 
      "--domains", ItemInterpolation("%(item_name)s,s3.amazonaws.com,files.posterous.com,"
        "getfile.posterous.com,getfile0.posterous.com,getfile1.posterous.com,"
        "getfile2.posterous.com,getfile3.posterous.com,getfile4.posterous.com,"
        "getfile5.posterous.com,getfile6.posterous.com,getfile7.posterous.com,"
        "getfile8.posterous.com,getfile9.posterous.com,getfile10.posterous.com"),
      "--reject-regex", r"\.com/login",
      "--timeout", "60",
      "--tries", "20",
      "--waitretry", "5",
      "--lua-script", "posterous.lua",
      "--warc-file", ItemInterpolation("%(item_dir)s/%(warc_file_base)s"),
      "--warc-header", "operator: Archive Team",
      "--warc-header", "posterous-dld-script-version: " + VERSION,
      "--warc-header", ItemInterpolation("posterous-user: %(item_name)s"),
      ItemInterpolation("http://%(item_name)s/")
    ],
    max_tries = 2,
    # check this: which Wget exit codes count as a success?
    accept_on_exit_code = [ 0, 8 ],
  ),

  # this will set the item["stats"] string that is sent to the tracker (see below)
  PrepareStatsForTracker(
    # there are a few normal values that need to be sent
    defaults = { "downloader": downloader, "version": VERSION },
    # this is used for the size counter on the tracker:
    # the groups should correspond with the groups set configured on the tracker
    file_groups = {
      # there can be multiple groups with multiple files
      # file sizes are measured per group
      "data": [ ItemInterpolation("%(item_dir)s/%(warc_file_base)s.warc.gz") ]
    },
  ),

  # remove the temporary files, move the warc file from
  # item["item_dir"] to item["data_dir"]
  MoveFiles(),
  
  # there can be multiple items in the pipeline, but this wrapper ensures
  # that there is only one item uploading at a time
  #
  # the NumberConfigValue can be changed in the configuration panel
  LimitConcurrent(NumberConfigValue(min=1, max=4, default="1",
    name="shared:rsync_threads", title="Rsync threads", 
    description="The maximum number of concurrent uploads."),
    # this upload task asks the tracker for an upload target
    # this can be HTTP or rsync and can be changed in the tracker admin panel
    UploadWithTracker(
      "http://%s/%s" % (TRACKER_HOST, TRACKER_ID),
      downloader = downloader,
      version = VERSION,
      # list the files that should be uploaded.
      # this may include directory names.
      # note: HTTP uploads will only upload the first file on this list
      files = [
        ItemInterpolation("%(data_dir)s/%(warc_file_base)s.warc.gz")
      ],
      # the relative path for the rsync command
      # (this defines if the files are uploaded to a subdirectory on the server)
      rsync_target_source_path = ItemInterpolation("%(data_dir)s/"),
      # extra rsync parameters (probably standard)
      rsync_extra_args = [
        "--recursive",
        "--partial",
        "--partial-dir", ".rsync-tmp"
      ]
    ),
  ),

  # if the item passed every task, notify the tracker and report the statistics
  SendDoneToTracker(
    tracker_url = "http://%s/%s" % (TRACKER_HOST, TRACKER_ID),
    stats = ItemValue("stats")
  )
)

It's pretty big.

Notice:

• the downloader variable should be left undefined
• ItemInterpolation holds some magic. ItemInterpolation("%(item_dir)s/wget.log").realize(item) executes item % "%(item_dir)s/wget.log" which gives us item["item_dir"]+"/wget.log"
• --output-document concatenates everything into a single temporary file.
• --truncate-output is a Wget+Lua option. It makes --output-document into a temporary file option by downloading to the file, extract the URLs, and then set the temporary file to 0 bytes.
• the use of -e robots=off because robots.txt is bad
• --lua-script posterous.lua specifies the Lua script that controls Wget
• NumberConfigValue adds another setting to the Warrior's advanced settings page

Lua Script

The Lua script is like a parasite controlling and modifying Wget's behavior from within.

• Recommended reading: Wget with Lua hooks
  • Example listings: Wget with Lua hooks#More_Examples
• Reference documentation: Wget with Lua hooks (GitHub)

Generally, scripts will want to use:

1. download_child_p
2. httploop_result
3. get_urls

download_child_p

This hook is useful for advanced URL accepting and rejecting. Although Wget supports regular expression on its command line options, it can be messy. Lua only supports a small subset of regular expressions called Patterns.

httploop_result

This hook is useful for checking if we have been banned or implementing our own --wait.

Here is a practical example that delays Wget for a minute on a ban or server overload, approximate 1 second between normal requests, and no delay on a content delivery network:

wget.callbacks.httploop_result = function(url, err, http_stat)
  local sleep_time = 60
  local status_code = http_stat["statcode"]

  if status_code == 420 or status_code >= 500 then
    if status_code == 420 then
      io.stdout:write("\nBanned (code "..http_stat.statcode.."). Sleeping for ".. sleep_time .." seconds.\n")
    else
      io.stdout:write("\nServer angered! (code "..http_stat.statcode.."). Sleeping for ".. sleep_time .." seconds.\n")
    end

    io.stdout:flush()

    -- Execute the UNIX sleep command (since Lua does not have its own delay function)
    -- Note that wget has its own linear backoff to this time as well
    os.execute("sleep " .. sleep_time)

    -- Tells wget to try again
    return wget.actions.CONTINUE

  else
    -- We're okay; sleep a bit (if we have to) and continue
    local sleep_time = 1.0 * (math.random(75, 125) / 100.0)

    if string.match(url["url"], "website-cdn%.net") then
      -- We should be able to go fast on images since that's what a web browser does
      sleep_time = 0
    end

    if sleep_time > 0.001 then
      os.execute("sleep " .. sleep_time)
    end

    -- Tells wget to resume normal behavior
    return wget.actions.NOTHING
  end
end

• You will likely want to be cautious and include the wget.actions.CONTINUE action to cover a wide case. Wget may consider a temporary server overload as a permanent error.
• Yahoo! likes to use status 999 to indicate a temporary ban.

get_urls

This hook is used to add additional URLs.

This example injects URLs to simulate JavaScript requests:

wget.callbacks.get_urls = function(file, url, is_css, iri)
  local urls = {}

  for image_id in string.gmatch(html, "([a-zA-Z0-9]-)/image_thumb.png") do
    table.insert(urls, {
      url="http://example.com/photo_viewer.php?imageid="..image_id,
      post_data="crf_token=deadbeef"
    })
  end

  return urls
end

It can also be used to display a progress message:

url_count = 0

wget.callbacks.get_urls = function(file, url, is_css, iri)
  url_count = url_count + 1
  if url_count % 5 == 0 then
    io.stdout:write("\r - Downloaded "..url_count.." URLs.")
    io.stdout:flush()
  end
end

Useful Snippets

Read first 1 kilobyte of a file:

read_file_short = function(file)
  if file then
    local f = io.open(file)
    local data = f:read(4096)
    f:close()
    return data or ""
  else
    return ""
  end
end

Run a pipeline.py

To run a pipeline file, run the command:

run-pipeline pipeline.py YOUR_NICKNAME

For more options, run:

run-pipeline --help

External Links

• Take a look at the grab scripts in recent Archive Team repositories for examples of clients.
• For more information, consult the seesaw-kit wiki.

Developer Documentation

• Infrastructure overview
• Source code repositories
• Warrior overview
• Starting a new project
• Writing Seesaw grab scripts
• Setting up a tracker
• Setting up Rsync and Megawarc Factory
• Project management and leadership

Setting up a tracker

This article describes how to set up your own tracker just like the official Archive Team tracker. Use this guide only if you want to do a full test of the infrastructure.

Note: A virtual machine appliance is available at ArchiveTeam/archiveteam-dev-env which contains a ready-to-use tracker.

Installation will cover:

• Environment: Ubuntu/Debian
• Languages:
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • JavaScript
• Web:
  • Nginx
  • Phusion Passenger
  • Redis
  • Node.js
• Tools:
  • Screen
  • Rsync
  • Git
  • Wget
  • regular expressions

The Tracker

The Tracker manages what items are claimed by users that run the Seesaw client. It also shows a pretty leaderboard.

Let's create a dedicated account to run the web server and tracker:

sudo adduser --system --group --shell /bin/bash tracker

Redis

Redis is database stored in memory. So, item names should be engineered to be memory efficient. Redis saves its database periodically into a file located at /var/lib/redis/6379/dump.rdb. It is safe to copy the file, e.g., for backups.

To install Redis, you may follow these quickstart instructions, but we'll show you how.

These steps are from the quickstart guide:

wget http://download.redis.io/redis-stable.tar.gz
tar xvzf redis-stable.tar.gz
cd redis-stable
make

Now install the server:

sudo make install
cd utils
sudo ./install_server.sh

Note, by default, it runs as root. Let's stop it and make it run under www-data:

sudo invoke-rc.d redis_6379 stop
sudo adduser --system --group www-data
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/lib/redis/6379/
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/log/redis_6379.log

Edit the config file /etc/redis/6379.conf with the options like:

bind 127.0.0.1
pidfile /var/run/shm/redis_6379.pid

Now tell the start up script to run it as www-data:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/redis_6379

Change the EXEC and CLIEXEC variables to use sudo -u www-data -g www-data:

EXEC="sudo -u www-data -g www-data /usr/local/bin/redis-server"
CLIEXEC="sudo -u www-data -g www-data /usr/local/bin/redis-cli"
PIDFILE=/var/run/shm/redis_6379.pid

To avoid catastrophe with background saves failing on fork() (Redis needs lots of memory), run:

sudo sysctl vm.overcommit_memory=1

The above setting will be lost after reboot. Add this line to /etc/sysctl.conf:

vm.overcommit_memory=1

The log file will get big so we need a logrotate config. Create one at /etc/logrotate.d/redis with the config:

/var/log/redis_*.log {
      daily
      rotate 10
      copytruncate
      delaycompress
      compress
      notifempty
      missingok
      size 10M
}

Start up Redis again using:

sudo invoke-rc.d redis_6379 start

Nginx with Passenger

Nginx is a web server. Phusion Passenger is a module within Nginx that runs Rails applications.

There is a guide on how to install Nginx with Passenger, the following instructions are similar.

Log in as tracker:

sudo -u tracker -i

We'll use RVM to install Ruby libraries:

curl -L get.rvm.io | bash -s stable
source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm
rvm requirements

A list of things needed to be installed will be shown. Log out of the tracker account, install them, and log back into the tracker account.

Install Ruby and Bundler:

rvm install 2.2.2
rvm rubygems current
gem install bundler

Install Passenger:

gem install passenger

Install Nginx. This command will download, compile, and install a basic Nginx server.:

passenger-install-nginx-module

Use the following prefix for Nginx installation:

/home/tracker/nginx/

Change the location of the tracker software (to be installed later). Edit nginx/conf/nginx.conf. Use the lines under the "location /" option:

root /home/tracker/universal-tracker/public;
passenger_enabled on;
client_max_body_size 15M;

The logs will get big so we'll use logrotate. Save this into /home/tracker/logrotate.conf:

/home/tracker/nginx/logs/error.log
/home/tracker/nginx/logs/access.log {
     daily
     rotate 10
     copytruncate
     delaycompress
     compress
     notifempty
     missingok
     size 10M
}

To call logrotate, we'll add an entry using crontab:

crontab -e

Now add the following line:

@daily /usr/sbin/logrotate --state /home/tracker/.logrotate.state /home/tracker/logrotate.conf

Log out of the tracker account at this point.

Let's create an Upstart configuration file to start up Nginx. Save this into /etc/init/nginx-tracker.conf:

description "nginx http daemon"

start on runlevel [2]
stop on runlevel [016]

setuid tracker
setgid tracker

console output

exec /home/tracker/nginx/sbin/nginx -c /home/tracker/nginx/conf/nginx.conf -g "daemon off;"

Or, if you use Systemd, put this into /lib/systemd/system/nginx-tracker.service:

[Unit]
Description="nginx http daemon"

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/home/tracker/nginx/sbin/nginx -c /home/tracker/nginx/conf/nginx.conf -g "daemon off;"

Tracker

Log in into the tracker account.

Download the Tracker software:

git clone https://github.com/ArchiveTeam/universal-tracker.git

We'll need to configure the location of Redis. Copy the config file:

cp universal-tracker/config/redis.json.example universal-tracker/config/redis.json

Add a "production" object into the JSON file. Here is an example:

{
  "development": {
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": 6379,
    "db":   13
  },
  "test": {
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": 6379,
    "db":   14
  },
  "production": {
    "host":"127.0.0.1",
    "port":6379,
    "db": 1
  }
}

• Now we may need to fix an issue with Passenger forking after the Redis connection has been made. Please see https://github.com/ArchiveTeam/universal-tracker/issues/5 for more information.
• There is also an issue with non-ASCII names. See https://github.com/ArchiveTeam/universal-tracker/issues/7.

Now install the necessary gems:

cd universal-tracker
bundle install

Log out of the tracker account at this point.

Node.js

Node.js is required to run the fancy leaderboard using WebSockets. We'll use NPM to manage the Node.js libraries:

sudo apt-get install npm

Log into the tracker account.

Now, we manually edit the Node.js program because it has problems:

cp -R universal-tracker/broadcaster .
nano broadcaster/server.js

Modify env and trackerConfig variables to something like this:

var env = {
    tracker_config: {
        redis_pubsub_channel: "tracker-log"
    },
    redis_db: 1
};
var trackerConfig = env['tracker_config'];

You also need to modify the "transports" configuration by adding websocket. The new line should look like this:

  io.set("transports", ["websocket", "xhr-polling"]);

Install the Node.js libraries needed:

npm install

If you get an error while installing hiredis, you may need to provide Debian's "nodejs" as "node". Symlink "node" to the nodejs executable and try again.

Log out of the tracker account at this point.

Create an Upstart file at /etc/init/nodejs-tracker.conf:

description "tracker nodejs daemon"

start on runlevel [2]
stop on runlevel [016]

setuid tracker
setgid tracker

exec node /home/tracker/broadcaster/server.js

Or, for Systemd, put this into /lib/systemd/system/nodejs-tracker.service:

[Unit]
Description="tracker nodejs daemon"

[Service]
Type=forking
Group=tracker
User=tracker
ExecStart=/usr/bin/js /home/tracker/broadcaster/server.js

Tracker Setup

Start up the Tracker and Broadcaster:

Upstart:

sudo start nginx-tracker
sudo start nodejs-tracker

Systemd:

sudo systemctl start nginx-tracker
sudo systemctl start nodejs-tracker

You now need to configure the tracker. Open up your web browser and visit http://localhost/global-admin/.

• In Global-Admin→Configuration→Live logging host, specify the public location of the Node.js app. By default, it uses port 8080.

You are now free to manage the tracker.

Notes:

• If you followed this guide, the rsync location is defined as rsync://HOSTNAME/PROJECT_NAME/:downloader/
• The trailing slash within the rsync URL is very important. Without it, files will not be uploaded within the directory.

Claims

You probably want to have Cron clearing out old claims. The Tracker includes a Ruby script that will do that for you. By default, it removes claims older than 6 hours. You may want to change that for big items by creating a copy of the script for each project.

To set up Cron, login as the tracker account, and run:

which ruby

Take note of which Ruby executable is used.

Now edit the Cron table:

crontab -e

Add the following line which runs release-stale.rb every 6 hours:

0 */6 * * * cd /home/tracker/universal-tracker && WHICH_RUBY scripts/release-stale.rb PROJECT_NAME

Logs

Since the Tracker stores logs into Redis, it will use up memory quickly. log-drainer.rb continuously writes the logs into a text file:

mkdir -p /home/tracker/universal-tracker/logs/
cd /home/tracker/universal-tracker && ruby scripts/log-drainer.rb

Pressing CTRL+C will stop it. Run this within a Screen session.

This crontab entry will compress the log files that haven't been modified in two days:

@daily find /home/tracker/universal-tracker/logs/ -iname "*.log" -mtime +2 -exec xz {} \;

Reducing memory usage

The Passenger Ruby module may use up too much memory. You can add the following lines to your nginx config. Add these inside the http block:

passenger_max_pool_size 2;
passenger_max_requests 10000;

The first line allows spawning maximum of 2 processes. The second line restarts Passenger after 10,000 requests to free memory caused by memory leaks.

Developer Documentation

• Infrastructure overview
• Source code repositories
• Warrior overview
• Starting a new project
• Writing Seesaw grab scripts
• Setting up a tracker
• Setting up Rsync and Megawarc Factory
• Project management and leadership

Setting up Rsync and Megawarc Factory

Dev/Staging

Project management and leadership

Dev/Project Management