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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/thank-you-for-supporting-the-fsf-tech-team

Dear Ruben Safir,

I'm Ian Kelling, a member of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) tech
team. First of all, I'd like to express our deep gratitude on behalf
of the whole FSF staff for the overwhelming support we received during
the recent matching campaign. A big thank you to all who helped
us raise a total of $46,500 in contributions and matching gifts.
Meanwhile, we hope to keep the momentum going, so that we also reach
the year-end fundraiser goal of $375,000 by December 31.

I'm writing to you today to share some of what the tech team has been
working on, what our plans are, and a little personal perspective.

I have a twelve-year-old at home, and I asked her: "What should I tell
people about free software, and why the FSF is worth supporting?" She
immediately responded: "Tell them free software is like having free
will. You are free to decide." I'd never heard that, but I think that
is a cool way of putting it. I'd elaborate further that we get to
individually and collectively decide how we run, modify, learn from,
and share the software.

The FSF tech team is working hard to make free software the norm, so
that the most widely used software would not be the hundred shades of
malware they are now, but would instead respect the user's,
i.e. your, freedom. It's a big job. We operate sixty-three
different services, platforms, and websites. We maintain all the
computers and software FSF uses, including obscure things like
accounting software, Asterisk telephony software, many websites
such as fsf.org, gnu.org, and endsoftwarepatents.org,
all with a wide variety of web frameworks. We also provide critical
services to the GNU Project, like email, build servers, release
hosting, bug tracking, Git hosting, and provide servers to free
software projects like KDE, Replicant, Trisquel, and
Parabola, all on computers with free BIOSes.

There are thousands of GNU and non-GNU developers relying on the
services we run, and billions of GNU software downloads. We even run
software to participate in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), an
Internet protocol for routing Internet traffic.

Since I started at FSF, I've encouraged us to take the time to be more
public in our sysadmin work while still being mindful of the overhead
that doing so can add. To that end, we recently published 133
webpages of our sysadmin documentation. These are only a fraction
of the notes we keep, and they're far from perfect. But they offer a
glimpse into the work we do and what it takes to administer the
software and hardware of the FSF, all while avoiding proprietary
software to the maximum extent possible. Something especially
interesting to browse is the "tickets" section, which documents how to
handle sixty specific issues that we have experienced. A lot of what
is written there are shell commands which we run in Bash.

GNU Bash is a wonderful tool we use every day, it executes commands
typed into the terminal and is also a scripting language. FSF system
administrators have had varying degrees of Bash knowledge, including
interns and volunteers who are just getting started with
Bash. We have quite a few Bash scripts which are ugly and which don't
use best practices, but for the job they do, they are sufficiently
reliable and that's okay. We aim to get the job done, not be
perfect. But we also have a healthy drive to master our craft, and so,
toward this end, we recently published an FSF Tech Team Bash Style
Guide.

This style guide is similar to existing ones, but it has one
difference worth highlighting: it explains how to use automatic error
handling while avoiding pitfalls where errors are ignored or don't
give useful information. This includes, optionally, using a stack
trace library, one written by us, that makes it practical to use
functions with automatic error handling. Most Bash guides suggest
using automatic error handling without mentioning that pitfalls
exist. For example, Greg's Wiki, the most comprehensive Bash guide,
simply recommends against using it because pitfalls exist,
without trying to list them. I think our guide expands on even the
most comprehensive sources and can help those looking for more
information.

This fall fundraiser is different than any of the past ones I've
participated in. My fellow team member Andrew Engelbrecht just moved
on from the FSF in October after seven years on staff and several more
as a volunteer doing invaluable work for the FSF. I'm grateful he
wrapped up a lot of work before he left. That being said,
currently it's just Michael and myself on the tech team. Because of
economical challenges and inflation, we will not be hiring someone to
join the tech team until we turn things around financially as an
organization. Doing this work with a two-person tech team will be more
challenging. Your support means a lot to me and everyone at the FSF.

If you want this work to continue, please give generously! Will
you help us reach our year-end fundraising goal of $375,000 by
making a donation or joining as an associate member
before December 31? Your contribution will ensure that the tech team
can continue its important work and finish projects like the new FSF
website, GNU mailing list upgrades, ftp.gnu.org backend software
improvements, updates to debbugs.gnu.org, LibreJS spec changes for
easier JavaScript identification, and more.

I think the FSF-run GNU infrastructure is a great example of free
software that's both for the users and funded by the users. This
work is real-life proof that the concepts of free software, conceived
forty years ago, are manageable in practice, as long as people
believe in them. Now is the time to show us that you do. And, as my
daughter put it: free software is like having free will. Let's fight
for that future!

Thank you for supporting the FSF tech team!

Happy hacking,

Ian Kelling

Senior Systems Administrator