Bongo-devel Digest, Vol 37, Issue 2

Discussion:

Michael Papet

2010-01-13 17:02:49 UTC

Lance, this is pretty easy.

use a wget job to download a url. 'wget http://bongo.org/hello.htm' to /tmp. wget has an overwrite option. The trick is to randomize the day/hour/minute on the cron job. Otherwise you will have the 'thundering herd' problem.

Track the number of hits on the url with a web log parser.

Wget should be standard on any linux distro.

I can work a perl/bash script up for you, but it'll take quite a bit of time as my schedule right now is very tight.

Mike.

Subject: Bongo-devel Digest, Vol 37, Issue 2
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 3:00 AM
Send Bongo-devel mailing list
submissions to
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/bongo-devel
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help'
to
You can reach the person managing the list at
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more
specific
than "Re: Contents of Bongo-devel digest..."
1. Usage Tracking Ideas (Lance Haig)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:27:37 +0000
Subject: [Bongo-devel] Usage Tracking Ideas
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hi All,
I have been creating images for Bongo now for a few years
and one of the problems we have is that we have no idea how
many people use the images or Bongo for that matter.
I was thinking how we could create some way to show user
numbers.
I have seen that another project has a cronjob that
downloads a txt file from the project web server and then
deletes it.
This gives them the rough numbers of servers out there and
also which countries the servers are sitting.
On the website they tell the users of the cronjob and how
to turn it off.
Does anyone have any ideas how we can start tracking the
number of Bongo servers out there?
I really want this to be implemented soon so we can know
how many there are, this will help me to determine how
urgent any fixes need to be compiled for the images.
Can I please have your thoughts and suggestions.
Regards
Lance
--
This message was scanned by Better Hosted and is believed
to be clean.
http://www.betterhosted.com
------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Bongo-devel mailing list
https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/bongo-devel
End of Bongo-devel Digest, Vol 37, Issue 2
******************************************

Lance Haig

2010-01-13 17:59:38 UTC

Permalink

Hi Mike,

I have a cronjob already but some people might not like the fact the server will be "phoning home", that is why I put it to the lists so that we can see how many people object.

Thanks for the offer though I might make use of your skills at a later stage.

Thanks again

Lance

Post by Michael Papet
Lance, this is pretty easy.
use a wget job to download a url. 'wget http://bongo.org/hello.htm' to /tmp. wget has an overwrite option. The trick is to randomize the day/hour/minute on the cron job. Otherwise you will have the 'thundering herd' problem.
Track the number of hits on the url with a web log parser.
Wget should be standard on any linux distro.
I can work a perl/bash script up for you, but it'll take quite a bit of time as my schedule right now is very tight.
Mike.

_______________________________________________
Bongo-devel mailing list
https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/bongo-devel
--
This message was scanned by Better Hosted and is believed to be clean.
Click here to report this message as spam.
http://mx1.betterhosted.com/cgi-bin/learn-msg.cgi?id=0E5949FEEF.ADF63

--
This message was scanned by Better Hosted and is believed to be clean.
http://www.betterhosted.com

Lance Haig

2010-01-13 20:39:16 UTC

Permalink

Thanks for the ideas.

Has anyone else got alternatives or strong feelings about this phoning
home feature?

Regards

Lance

Just document the fact it's phoning home and what it is doing when in the act of phoning home and how to disable it. In a related note, it might be a good idea to collect uptime/crash info while it's phoning home. As long as the 'phoning home' isn't terribly complicated, (ex. a script) then it won't be an issue for even an amateur admin.
There might be somebody at some point cry foul, but the reasonable reply is "It's documented. If it's a problem for you, turn it off. This kind of flame baiting is not welcome." Or more derogatory, "You want to cry wolf over this one? It's well documented including how to turn it off. Begone!"
Mike.

Subject: Re: [Bongo-devel] Bongo-devel Digest, Vol 37, Issue 2
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 9:59 AM
Hi Mike,
I have a cronjob already but some people might not like the
fact the server will be "phoning home", that is why I put it
to the lists so that we can see how many people object.
Thanks for the offer though I might make use of your skills
at a later stage.
Thanks again
Lance

Post by Michael Papet
Lance, this is pretty easy.
use a wget job to download a url. 'wget http://bongo.org/hello.htm' to /tmp. wget has an

overwrite option. The trick is to randomize
the day/hour/minute on the cron job. Otherwise you
will have the 'thundering herd' problem.

Post by Michael Papet
Track the number of hits on the url with a web log

parser.

Post by Michael Papet
Wget should be standard on any linux distro.
I can work a perl/bash script up for you, but it'll

take quite a bit of time as my schedule right now is very
tight.

Post by Michael Papet
Mike.

Subject: Bongo-devel Digest, Vol 37, Issue 2
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 3:00 AM
Send Bongo-devel mailing list
submissions to
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide

Web, visit