svcshare

Svcshare (service share) is a distributed queueing system that controls access to a shared resource.

Requirements

As of version 0.3.0, the “simplejson” Python module is required for Python versions prior to 2.6. It can be easily installed with:

$ easy_install -U simplejson

easy_install is part of the setuptools package, which is available for download for various platforms, including Windows.

Installation

1. Ensure all requirements are met.
2. Following a git clone, copy config.py.dist to config.py and edit config.py with your favorite editor. The items should be self-explanatory.
3. Configure your client to use the tunnel/proxy created by svcshare. This only requires changing your current settings to use localhost:8999 as the server (or wherever svcshare is running).

Running

Start your client first and then run ./ssclient.py.

On startup, svcshare will pause the client and proxy, and connect to the IRC server specified in the configuration.

Commands

The svcshare program is controlled by commands sent to the IRC channel or the bot directly.

Two commands are available only in the public channel: .status, .version.

.status:

Request client status from any bots which active connections.

.version:

Request version information from all bots.

The rest of the commands can be used in the public channel by addressing a bot using <botnick>: <command> [<extra>], or by sending a private message to the bot with <command> [<extra>].

election:

Aliases: resume, continue Start a major election. A major election requests queue sizes from peers, and if we have the smallest queue, the client is resumed.

enqueue <id>:

Aliases: enq

Add report with id <id> to the queue.

force [<mb>]:

Activate force mode. This immediately resumes the client without first performing an election. If <mb> is specified, election requests from peers will be ignored until <mb> has been processed, effectively monopolizing the shared resource. If <mb> is not specified, it is assumed to be 0, and election requests from peers are not ignored.

halt [<minutes>]:

Activate halt mode. This immediately pauses the client and will not automatically resume client for any reason unless <minutes> is specified and is greater than 0, and <minutes> minutes have passed. If <minutes> is not specified, an indefinite halt is activated. Indefinite halts do not end until svcshare is restarted or unhalt or force is used. While in halt mode, no elections will be started, and an empty queue will be reported to peers.

pause:

Pause client and proxy. This will also clear a force.

unhalt:

Deactivate halt mode.