Server-side OS update
It is past time to move on from FreeBSD 11.3. The candidates are either 11.4 or the newly released 12.2. I would prefer the latter since the former is probably the end of the road for 11.x. I will have to try an upgrade to the latter to see how much effort is involved.
However, the OS is less of an issue though than moving on to a more current port set. In theory, python 2.7 is gone at the end of this year (see issue #599 (closed)). Just trying to build server package sets with just python 3 was an adventure, nevermind getting the Emulab software to build and work.
Another side-effect of a new port set is that they have moved on to Swig4 and there isn't even a swig3 port anymore. The only thing that broke immediately was the abac
package which doesn't seem to be supported anymore and was written to work with swig2.
I would dearly love to have this resolved soon before we start rolling out Powder MEs in quantity. Updating those later would be a massive pain in the ass.
The tasks I know of:
-
Create a python3-based package set. -
Get Emulab server-side scripts working with python3. -
Work out a conversion process from 11.x to (probably) 12.2. -
Get abac
(and others?) working with swig4. -
Fix clientside scripts to work with python3.