[DBWG] DBWG-2: proposal to auto-generate contents of the mandatory "changed" field in db objects.

[Nishal Goburdhan]

On 29 Jul 2020, at 22:28, Ben Maddison via DBWG wrote:


> Hi all,

>

> I think that the principle is sensible, but the details might be 

> tricky.

>

> The "date" part is easy to calculate on receipt.

> The "from" part is less so:

> - updates via the web-submission thingy

> - updates via the REST-wotsit

> - updates generated by tooling that sets the 'changed:' to the correct

>   user but generates the 'From:' using a shared/dummy mailbox

>

> Having accurate 'changed:' is important for attribution, as the 

> current

> legacy space saga reminds us.



nishal at slartibartfast:~$ date && whois -B -h whois.afrinic.net 
ndg-afrinic | grep -A1 changed
Fri Jul 31 18:08:21 SAST 2020
changed:        ben.maddison at domain.invalid 19990730
source:         AFRINIC

are you saying the database is incorrect?   :-)



> If we're going to solve this properly, perhaps referencing the mntner

> used to authorise the update is the way to go? (it's transport

> independent, less spoof-able, and maybe more useful for a later 

> audit).

> Users could then provide an optional 'changed-reason:', providing 

> email

> attribution and/or commit-msg things.


i support ben’s very common-sense suggestion.


-n.