Consider moving from master/slave terminology

[cllns]

This seems like an internal tool, but it might be a good idea to change from 'master/slave' to something less problematic.

I'm not familiar with this tool, but primary/replica might work. (or leader/follower)

@steveklabnik @brson, thoughts?

[steveklabnik]

Very, very +1

(and primary/replica is my preferred, but just anything other than master/slave)

[brson]

'master' and 'slave' are the buildbot terminology.

[bheesham]

Yeah, that would be tricky. You can always fork Buildbot and hope a simple text replacement would work

[tbu-]

@steveklabnik Primary/replica doesn't seem to fit, as there's a controller (the current "master") which completely controls the other instances (the current "slaves"), i.e. they're not replicas of the primary.

[cllns]

@tbu- What about leader/follower?

[tbu-]

That sounds better.

[trevrosen]

I think "leader/follower" works as a pretty much universal replacement for "master/slave". I don't do any Rust at work, but we've started to use this nomenclature for multi-server environments there.

[eevee]

uwsgi uses emperor/vassal for some similar feature.

"peon" is a great word too. but then i'm inclined towards colorful names :)

[tonylukasavage]

leader/follower is pretty popular among projects making this particular change.

[fables-tales]

@steveklabnik leader/follower seems correct in this case for me.

[coderanger]

For CI stuff in the past I've used "server/worker" or "server/builder".

[jedahan]

leader/follower seems more general than leader/builder

though I like both

[runlevel5]

Oh my, please check https://github.com/django/django/pull/2692

[alex]

coordinator/worker is probably what I'd use if I were building a CI system.

[effigies]

Would suggest controller/worker, but +1 to coordinator/worker, too.

[timplunkett]

Drupal decided on using primary/replica, following Django's lead.

[alex]

A build system's naming scheme isn't describing the same thing as a database system; I do think primary/replica is the right naming for database replication schemes.

On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 3:25 PM, Tim Plunkett notifications@github.com wrote:

Drupal decided on using primary/replica, following Django's lead.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-buildbot/issues/2#issuecomment-72962526 .

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[tomburns]

+1 for leader / follower, given the context.

[jjjjw]

primary/secondary also works, if primary/replica seems weird.

[reaperhulk]

http://trac.buildbot.net/ticket/2340 may also be of interest.

[mikeedwards]

primary/secondary? That's sort of what mongo does: http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/core/replication/

Primary and replica would work, too, but that might be too specific in terms of function of the "non-primary" machine. Secondary is nicely general, if that matters.

[tbu-]

@zjjw Your terminology doesn't quite fit, it might fit for databases, but not for build servers.

server/worker might fit.

[cllns]

@reaperhulk I was in the process of writing a comment there when you posted the link :+1:

[tomjakubowski]

We should avoid using "leader" in upper case or any other context where it could be construed as a title.

[kamalmarhubi]

slave -> worker above the rest of the suggestions.

Perhaps master is all right with that change, trying to decide for myself.

For the master:

• leave it as master. Trying to decide for myself if that's all right with slave -> worker
• coordinator: I think this works well
• server: I don't know buildbot architecture, but if the 'master' is the process that receives requests and sends them out, 'server' would be all right. If it polls the repo and only manages the workers, then I don't think it fits.
• leader: leader / follower to me suggest a distributed database or a paxos or raft like replicated state machine.
• primary: primary / secondary suggest the two components are of the same class, which is not the case.

Edit: ha! Marx's comments on the buildbot ticket are my exact potential issue with master / worker.

[colingourlay]

I'm throwing in gru / minion.

[O-I]

I think primary/replica has precedent in replacing master/slave terminology like in the aforementioned Django issue mentioned by @joneslee85, but I find myself more in the leader/follower camp.

If it didn't make things even more confusing, I'd suggest something like yang/yin. :smiley:

[locks]

CouchDB also switched to primary / replica, if I remember correctly: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COUCHDB-2248

[crazymykl]

Although leader/follower looks to be in the lead, I humbly propose exemplar/aspirant.

[Manishearth]

primary/replica sounds too database-y, and replication isn't exactly what's happening here.

I prefer leader/follower

[lukemayes]

@tbi- describing the current "master" as a controller made me think controller/drone or controller/worker might be good.

[tomjakubowski]

"Drone" is equally problematic in parts of the world ravaged by US military intervention.

[steveklabnik]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

Given that we're not a database, I agree that primary/replica doesn't make a lot of sense. But regardless, this really needs to be fixed upstream. Therefore, I'm doing two things:

1. Closing this in favor of http://trac.buildbot.net/ticket/2340
2. Working with said upstream to land a patch. I have been emailing with one of the committers about it, and they're favorable to the change, the work just needs done. I plan on implementing leader/follower.

If upstream ends up rejecting this, we can re-open and see what we can do, but for now, dealing with them is the correct course of action.

[dhuseby]

How about "gun" and "shovel"?

"You see in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YnryHbJqC4&t=3m34s