Mitogen ======= Mitogen is a Python library for writing distributed self-replicating programs. .. raw:: html .. warning:: This is alpha-quality code. If you intend to use it, be aware of how little real world testing it has received, the total absence of any systematic tests, and the nightmare-level difficulty of debugging hangs in a tree of processes running identical code straddling multiple thread and machine boundaries! ``router.enable_debug()`` is your friend. If you think you have a use for this software, please `drop me an e-mail`_ so that expectations and bug fixes can be managed sensibly. .. _drop me an e-mail: dw@botanicus.net .. image:: images/cell_division.png :align: right There is no requirement for installing packages, copying files around, writing shell snippets, upfront configuration, or providing any secondary link to a remote machine aside from an SSH connection. Due to its origins for use in managing potentially damaged infrastructure, the **remote machine need not even have free disk space or a writeable filesystem**. It is not intended as a generic RPC framework; the goal is to provide a robust and efficient low-level API on which tools like `Salt`_, `Ansible`_, or `Fabric`_ can be built, and while the API is quite friendly and comparable to `Fabric`_, ultimately it is not intended for direct use by consumer software. .. _Salt: https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ .. _Ansible: http://docs.ansible.com/ .. _Fabric: http://docs.fabfile.org/en/ The focus is to centralize and perfect the intricate dance required to run Python code safely and efficiently on a remote machine, while **avoiding temporary files or large chunks of error-prone shell scripts**, and supporting common privilege escalation techniques like `sudo`, potentially in combination with exotic connection methods such as WMI, `telnet`, or console-over-IPMI. Automatic Bootstrap ################### Mitogen's main feature is enabling your Python program to bootstrap and communicate with new copies of itself under its control running on remote machines, **using only an existing installed Python interpreter and SSH client**, something that by default can be found on almost all contemporary machines in the wild. To accomplish bootstrap, Mitogen uses a single 600 byte SSH command line and 6KB of its own source code sent to stdin of the remote SSH connection. .. code:: $ python preamble_size.py SSH command size: 576 Preamble size: 6360 (6.21KiB) mitogen.master size: 4104 (4.01KiB) mitogen.ssh size: 295 (0.29KiB) mtiogen.sudo size: 1210 (1.18KiB) Once bootstrapped, the remote process is configured with a customizable **argv[0]**, readily visible to system administrators of the remote machine using the UNIX **ps** command: .. code:: 20051 ? Ss 0:00 \_ sshd: dmw [priv] 20053 ? S 0:00 | \_ sshd: dmw@notty 20054 ? Ssl 0:00 | \_ mitogen:dmw@Eldil.home:22476 20103 ? S 0:00 | \_ tar zxvf myapp.tar.gz The example context was started by UID ``dmw`` on host ``Eldil.home``, process ID ``22476``. IO Multiplexer ############## The bootstrap includes a compact IO multiplexer (like Twisted or asyncio) that allows it to perform work in the background while executing your program's code. For example, the remote context can be used to **connect to a new user on the remote machine using sudo**, or as an intermediary for extending the program's domain of control outward to other machines, enabling your program to **manipulate machines behind a firewall**, or enable its **data plane to cohere to your network topology**. .. image:: images/billing.png :align: right .. code:: bastion_host = router.ssh( hostname='jump-box.mycorp.com' ) ssh_account = router.sudo( via=bastion_host, username='user_with_magic_ssh_key', password='sudo password', ) internal_box = router.ssh( via=ssh_account, hostname='billing0.internal.mycorp.com' ) internal_box.call(os.system, './run-nightly-billing.py') The multiplexer also ensures the remote process is terminated if your Python program crashes, communication is lost, or the application code running in the context has hung. Module Forwarder ################ In addition to an IO multiplexer, slaves are configured with a custom `PEP-302 importer`_ that forwards requests for unknown Python modules back to the host program. When your program asks a context to execute code from an unknown module, all requisite modules are transferred automatically and imported entirely in RAM without need for further configuration. .. _PEP-302 importer: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0302/ .. code-block:: python import myapp.mypkg.mymodule # myapp/__init__.py, myapp/mypkg/__init__.py, and myapp/mypkg/mymodule.py # are transferred automatically. print context.call(myapp.mymodule.my_function) As the forwarder reuses the import mechanism, it should integrate cleanly with any tool such as `py2exe`_ that correctly implement the protocols in PEP-302, allowing truly single file applications to run across multiple machines without further effort. .. _py2exe: http://www.py2exe.org/ SSH Client Emulation #################### .. image:: images/fakessh.png :align: right Support is included for starting subprocesses with a modified environment, that cause their attempt to use SSH to be redirected back into the host program. In this way tools like `rsync`, `git`, `sftp`, and `scp` can efficiently reuse the host program's existing connection to the remote machine, including any firewall/user account hopping in use, with no additional configuration. Scenarios that were not previously possible with these tools are enabled, such as running `sftp` and `rsync` over a `sudo` session, to an account the user cannot otherwise directly log into, including in restrictive environments that for example enforce an interactive TTY and account password. .. code-block:: python bastion = router.ssh(hostname='bastion.mycorp.com') webserver = router.ssh(via=bastion, hostname='webserver') webapp = router.sudo(via=webserver, username='webapp') fileserver = router.ssh(via=bastion, hostname='fileserver') # Transparently tunnelled over fileserver -> .. -> sudo.webapp link fileserver.call(mitogen.fakessh.run, webapp, [ 'rsync', 'appdata', 'appserver:appdata' ]) Inter-slave Message Routing ########################### .. image:: images/route.png Slaves may communicate autonomously without direct interaction with the master, allowing a wide variety of complex data and control flows to be expressed using the links between the processes. Logging Forwarder ################# The bootstrap configures the remote process's Python logging package to forward all logs back to the local process, enabling management of program logs in one location. .. code:: 18:15:29 D mitogen.ctx.k3: mitogen: Importer.find_module('mitogen.zlib') 18:15:29 D mitogen.ctx.k3: mitogen: _dispatch_calls((1002L, False, 'posix', None, 'system', ('ls -l /proc/self/fd',), {})) Stdio Forwarder ############### To ease porting of crusty old infrastructure scripts to Python, the bootstrap redirects stdio for itself and any child processes back into the logging framework. This allows use of functions as basic as **os.system('hostname; uptime')** without further need to capture or manage output. .. code:: 18:17:28 D mitogen.ctx.k3: mitogen: _dispatch_calls((1002L, False, 'posix', None, 'system', ('hostname; uptime',), {})) 18:17:56 I mitogen.ctx.k3: stdout: k3 18:17:56 I mitogen.ctx.k3: stdout: 17:37:10 up 562 days, 2:25, 5 users, load average: 1.24, 1.13, 1.14 Blocking Code Friendly ###################### Within each process, a private thread runs the I/O multiplexer, leaving the main thread and any additional application threads free to perform useful work. While Mitogen is internally asynchronous, it hides this asynchrony from consumer code. This is since writing asynchronous code is mostly a foreign concept to the target application of managing infrastructure. It should be possible to rewrite a shell script in Python without significant restructuring, or mind-bending feats of comprehension to understand control flow. Before: .. code-block:: sh #!/bin/bash # Install our application. tar zxvf app.tar.gz After: .. code-block:: python def install_app(): """ Install our application. """ os.system('tar zxvf app.tar.gz') context.call(install_app) Or even: .. code-block:: python context.call(os.system, 'tar zxvf app.tar.gz') Exceptions raised by function calls are propagated back to the parent program, and timeouts can be configured to ensure failed calls do not block progress of the parent. Support For Single File Programs ################################ Programs that are self-contained within a single Python script are supported. External contexts are configured such that any attempt to execute a function from the main Python script will correctly cause that script to be imported as usual into the slave process. .. code-block:: python #!/usr/bin/env python """ Install our application on a remote machine. Usage: install_app.py Where: Hostname to install to. """ import os import sys import mitogen def install_app(): os.system('tar zxvf my_app.tar.gz') def main(broker): if len(sys.argv) != 2: print __doc__ sys.exit(1) context = mitogen.ssh.connect(broker, sys.argv[1]) context.call(install_app) if __name__ == '__main__' and mitogen.is_master: import mitogen.utils mitogen.utils.run_with_broker(main) Event-driven IO ############### Code running in a remote context can be connected to a *Channel*. Channels are used to send data asynchronously back to the parent, without further need for the parent to poll for changes. This is useful for monitoring systems managing a large fleet of machines, or to alert the parent of unexpected state changes. .. code-block:: python def tail_log_file(channel, path='/var/log/messages'): """ Forward new lines in a log file to the parent. """ size = os.path.getsize(path) while channel.open(): new_size = os.path.getsize(path) if new_size == size: time.sleep(1) continue elif new_size < size: size = 0 fp = file(path, 'r') fp.seek(size) channel.send(fp.read(new_size - size)) fp.close() size = new_size Compatibility ############# The package is written using syntax compatible all the way back to **Python 2.4** released November 2004, making it suitable for managing a fleet of potentially ancient corporate hardware. For example Mitogen can be used out of the box against Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, released in 2007. There is currently no support for Python 3, and no solid plan for supporting it any time soon. Due to constraints on implementation size and desire for compatibility with ancient Python versions, conventional porting methods such as ``six.py`` are likely to be unsuitable. Zero Dependencies ################# Mitogen is implemented entirely using the standard library functionality and interfaces that were available in Python 2.4.