Ansible 的爭論

前幾天在 Hacker News Daily 上看到「Five Ansible Techniques I Wish I’d Known Earlier」這篇,裡面提到了一些 Ansible 的用法還蠻有用的,算是開始用 Ansible 後應該都會有幫助的用法... 不過 Hacker News 上的討論「Ansible Techniques I Wish I’d Known Earlier (zwischenzugs.com)」比較精彩...

目前在頂端的留言對 Ansible 幹到不行,尤其是那個 YAML 格式:

Ansible is abysmal. I don't know why anyone still chooses it. It's a mess of yaml and what feels like a million yaml files that is always extremely hard to follow. Honestly writing some python, or bash is a lot easier to follow, read, and understand. The only thing it has going for it is the inventory system. I wish ansible would die already.

然後講到 bash 與 python 之類的工具時有人提到 idempotent:

>bash and python
Neither of those of idempotent.

馬上就有人幹勦,大多數人在寫 Ansible playbook 時根本沒人在注意 idempotent,而且一堆 shell script 的東西被塞進 YAML 只能說痛苦 XDDD

Most of the ansible roles I come across written by my team are not idempotent either, its a huge lie that Ansible is idempotent. Its idempotent if you put the effort into make it be but if I see tons of shell or command module invocations without prerequisite checks to see if the work should be done. Most devs I see using Ansible treat it like a shell script written in YAML and to that purpose it sucks.

我自己目前會挑 Ansible 主要還是因為 server 不需要另外裝軟體,是個 production 為導向的設計,再更大的時候就要想一下要怎麼繼續搞下去了...

GET 與 POST 的差異

看到這篇在講 HTTP (& HTTPS) 裡面 GET 與 POST 的差異,剛好把一些標準的定義拿出來翻一翻,算是複習基本概念:「Get safe」。

第一個基本概念主要是 idempotence (& idempotent),重複被呼叫不會造成狀態的再次改變:

Idempotence ([...]) is the property of certain operations in mathematics and computer science whereby they can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application.

數學定義是這樣跑:

An element x of a magma (M, •) is said to be idempotent if:

x • x = x.

If all elements are idempotent with respect to •, then • is called idempotent. The formula ∀x, x • x = x is called the idempotency law for •.

這點在 HTTP 標準 (RFC 7231) 裡面的定義也類似:

A request method is considered "idempotent" if the intended effect on the server of multiple identical requests with that method is the same as the effect for a single such request. Of the request methods defined by this specification, PUT, DELETE, and safe request methods are idempotent.

第二個基本概念是 Safe method (也是在同樣的 RFC 裡被提到),主要的思想是 read-only,這也是文章作者的標題要講的事情:

Request methods are considered "safe" if their defined semantics are essentially read-only; i.e., the client does not request, and does not expect, any state change on the origin server as a result of applying a safe method to a target resource. Likewise, reasonable use of a safe method is not expected to cause any harm, loss of property, or unusual burden on the origin server.

然後標準的 HTTP method 是有定義的:

   +---------+------+------------+---------------+
   | Method  | Safe | Idempotent | Reference     |
   +---------+------+------------+---------------+
   | CONNECT | no   | no         | Section 4.3.6 |
   | DELETE  | no   | yes        | Section 4.3.5 |
   | GET     | yes  | yes        | Section 4.3.1 |
   | HEAD    | yes  | yes        | Section 4.3.2 |
   | OPTIONS | yes  | yes        | Section 4.3.7 |
   | POST    | no   | no         | Section 4.3.3 |
   | PUT     | no   | yes        | Section 4.3.4 |
   | TRACE   | yes  | yes        | Section 4.3.8 |
   +---------+------+------------+---------------+

不過文章裡面提到的第一個例子並沒有很好,POST 不保證 safe 沒錯,但不代表 safe operation 就不能用 POST。

這邊用 URI resource 的概念 (以及 SEO?) 或是用 Post/Redirect/Get 的概念來說明會比較好:

<form method="get" action="/search">
<input type="search" name="term">

不過文章後續提到的問題的確就是我自己都會犯錯的問題:

“Log out” links that should be forms with a “log out” button—you can always style it to look like a link if you want.

“Unsubscribe” links in emails that immediately trigger the action of unsubscribing instead of going to a form where the POST method does the unsubscribing. I realise that this turns unsubscribing into a two-step process, which is a bit annoying from a usability point of view, but a destructive action should never be baked into a GET request.

這兩個動作都會造成 server 端的狀態改變,不應該用 GET,而我自己常常忘記第一個... 這邊其實可以用 form 產生 POST 需求,並且用 css 效果包起來,達到看起來跟一般的連結一樣。

寫起來讓自己多一點印象,之後避免再犯一樣的錯誤...