[Cosmo-dev] space usage reports

[Jared Rhine]

Mike Taylor wrote:
> Here's some thoughts I had about the report output:

Whoops, sorry I didn't include responses to this in my just-sent writeup.

>   - I would list the username in a column of it's own - if I am parsing
> the report having it as a column means I don't have to parse the path
> for the user

Ah, yes indeed, certainly if the aggregate report stays, that'd be helpful,
and the format should be the same between the two.

>   - I would avoid trying to do summaries or other than the most basic
> aggregation.  I think it's a case of opening pandora's box - once you do
> one you will get requests to do others.  Just list the data and let the
> user write an aggregation script

Yup.

> Here's a devil's advocate question - should the usage report include
> individual items.

I think it's relatively fundamental to the idea of the report.  Without it,
the sophistication of the scripts an admin can write is reduced.  Same with
showing UUID without the path; it's just much easier for an admin to get
immediate context by seeing the path as there are parts of the path that are
human-readable.

> As a user I don't know if I would want each file listed.

Are you suggesting seeing just the total amount of space used?  While
useful, I know from experience that as soon as anyone (admin or user) knows
the total space used, they want to know the breakdown of that usage, either
for kicks or to find specific items to remove/reduce.

> Also, does the admin really want to know each single item?

If I know that a file is consuming 10Mb in a given account, it seems almost
useless to not be able to find out specifically which file is using that 10Mb.

Keep in mind that I don't have to have my wrapper script show me each file.
 But my scripts needs theoretical access to each in order to support reports
like "top 100 resources".

> What's the current thinking on admins knowing about user
> data?  Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell or DHS-Knows-All ?

There are lots of policy reasons that I'll pretty much insist on having full
access.  Which I have via mysql anyway.  I need to be able to find out, for
instance, if people are storing MP3s on osaf.us, and how bad the problem is,
before I can even determine if I need to ask for a Cosmo feature to restrict
the upload of MP3 files.

-- Jared