mapp-worker

README

The Marauders App - worker

This is the worker that picks up information about every DICE machine. It takes inspiration from the original Python implementation.

How to run

• Have Go installed
• Ensure $GOPATH/bin is in your PATH
• Get the worker by running go get -u github.com/compsoc-edinburgh/mapp/cmd/mapp-worker
• Set the MAPP_SECRET, CALLBACK_KEY environment variables
• Run mapp-worker and let it do its magic.

Speed

This goes through every DICE machine and scans it within 30 seconds.

How it works

It downloads a machines.json file from the mapp website.

It will then attempt to authenticate against student.login. If authentication does not work to student.login, it will abort.

All threads will authenticate with the remote hosts using the Kerberos credentials on your machine.

You can provide a machines.json file

Expects the MACHINES_LIST environment variable to point to a JSON file containing a list of DICE machines.

You can get a machines.json file (can be called anything, must be a json file though) by visiting this URL. Note that you can provide multiple rooms to receive machines from multiple rooms at once.

Production

To run this bot on any Informatics DICE machine, create a script that sets those environment variables and runs the program:

export CALLBACK_KEY='....'
export MAPP_SECRET='......'
mapp-worker

Then run the following line:

longjob -nobackground -28day -c "nice ./mapp-worker.sh"

The longjob command will ask for your DICE password and then produce renewable Kerberos credentials valid for up to 28 days. This will allow your bot to run for 28 days.

Recovering from crashes

@qaisjp is a monster and uses this:

alias mapp_start="longjob -nobackground -28day -c ~/Documents/mapp-worker/mapp-worker.sh"
function mapp {
    read -sp "Password? " PW
    while true; do
        printf "%s" "$PW" | mapp_start
    done;
}