[pypy-dev] PyPy for restricted execution Python

[holger krekel]

[Christopher Armstrong Thu, Aug 19, 2004 at 04:30:58PM -0400]
> On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 13:32:28 +0200, holger krekel <hpk at trillke.net> wrote:
> > [Christopher Armstrong Thu, Aug 19, 2004 at 06:30:59AM -0400]
> > > That would be cool, but it seems pretty hard (well, maybe in a few
> > > more years of computing power advancement ;), and I think it's
> > > acceptable to only use a limited pool of UMLs that run multiple users'
> > > code. Here's why.
> > 
> > As PyPy will be faster than C i don't see a speed problem :-)
> > 
> > Seriously, though, if the code is to interact with a gaming
> > api and not drive e.g. some graphics hardware i don't see a
> > big computing power problem with PyPy on top of UserModeLinux
> > even if PyPy would be five times slower than CPython.
> 
> Oh, I'm not worried about PyPy's performance -- the performance I was
> referring to was that of UML. Running hundreds of UMLs on a machine
> right now is totally impractical, if I'm not mistaken.

I think you are right that running hundreds of UMLs is
impractical (thought i believe this is mostly because you have
to assign static RAM amounts at boot time due to the linux
kernel's VM architecture).  Maybe running thousands of
user-processes on some form of se-linux or OpenBSD with tight
security settings (no opening of ports etc.pp.) would do for
the host security part.  

anyway, "restricted execution" within PyPy surely remains something
we should think about especially if we have concrete use cases. 

have fun, 

    holger

P.S.: let me know what you got out of Kapil and if the zope3 
      security architecture suits you. i am curious in case i
      want to write my own scriptable MMG :-)