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OSS Report: envoyproxy/envoy

Envoy Project Faces Testing Reliability Challenges Amidst Active Development

Envoy, a cloud-native proxy designed to enhance microservices communication, continues to see active development with a focus on performance and usability improvements. However, recent issues highlight persistent testing reliability challenges, particularly with flaky tests and cross-platform compatibility.

Recent Activity

The project has seen a surge in user engagement, with numerous issues and pull requests (PRs) addressing enhancements and bug fixes. Key areas of focus include dynamic configuration management and testing reliability. Notable issues such as #35956 on dynamically replacing the ADS server indicate a push for greater deployment flexibility. Meanwhile, test flakiness remains a concern with issues like #35945 and #35944 highlighting stability problems.

Development Team Activity

Of Note

  1. Testing Flakiness: Persistent issues with flaky tests (#35945, #35944) suggest underlying stability concerns that need urgent attention.
  2. Dynamic Configuration Enhancements: The request for dynamic ADS server replacement (#35956) reflects a need for more flexible deployment options.
  3. Mobile Development Focus: Significant contributions towards mobile capabilities indicate an emphasis on expanding Envoy's reach in mobile environments.
  4. Active Dependency Management: Frequent updates by dependabot highlight a proactive approach to maintaining security and stability through automated dependency management.
  5. Collaborative Development Environment: Ongoing discussions in PRs like #35959 demonstrate a collaborative culture fostering shared ownership of the codebase.

Quantified Reports

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Recent GitHub Issues Activity

Timespan Opened Closed Comments Labeled Milestones
7 Days 25 23 50 1 1
30 Days 112 98 249 1 1
90 Days 328 197 1009 1 1
All Time 11539 10002 - - -

Like all software activity quantification, these numbers are imperfect but sometimes useful. Comments, Labels, and Milestones refer to those issues opened in the timespan in question.

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Quantified Commit Activity Over 30 Days

Developer Avatar Branches PRs Commits Files Changes
phlax 3 27/22/3 24 339 30897
Divya Chakarwarti 1 2/2/0 3 48 7388
Adi (Suissa) Peleg 1 7/6/0 9 187 6337
Kateryna Nezdolii 1 1/1/0 2 15 3251
yanavlasov 1 2/2/0 5 77 1912
Fredy Wijaya 1 16/13/1 14 57 1833
dependabot[bot] 1 26/17/9 26 21 1610
Diogo Barbosa 1 0/0/0 1 21 1402
bsurber 1 2/2/0 3 5 1254
Antonio V. Leonti 1 2/1/0 4 20 1132
ohadvano 1 5/2/0 3 32 864
code 1 13/6/3 7 40 845
danzh 1 4/2/0 5 50 841
Raven Black 1 3/2/0 5 17 770
Tianyu 2 4/0/1 4 11 765
Takeshi Yoneda 1 2/1/1 3 35 748
alyssawilk 1 2/0/0 7 25 599
Misha Efimov 1 3/1/0 2 21 583
Keith Mattix II 1 0/0/0 1 13 424
Paul Sohn 1 0/0/0 1 48 384
Ali Beyad 1 1/1/0 3 32 382
Huabing Zhao 1 2/1/0 3 11 371
罗泽轩 1 1/1/0 2 17 342
dependency-envoy[bot] 30 29/18/4 47 4 296
Tony Allen 1 1/0/0 1 13 294
Zhaoyang Li 1 0/0/0 1 12 293
yanjunxiang-google 1 3/1/0 3 10 279
Damien Mehala 1 1/1/0 1 7 249
Leonardo Sarra 1 0/0/0 1 12 243
Ryan Hamilton 1 1/1/0 2 11 216
blake-snyder 1 2/1/0 2 5 211
Yangmin Zhu 1 0/0/0 1 7 142
William Dauchy 1 0/0/0 1 3 123
Steven Jin 1 1/1/0 1 9 120
Nigel Brittain 1 1/1/0 2 7 110
RenjieTang 1 1/1/0 1 6 101
Kuo-Chung Hsu 1 0/0/0 1 3 87
Xi Wu 1 0/0/0 1 9 75
kozjan 1 0/0/0 1 3 72
Martin Duke 1 0/0/0 1 3 71
Elisha Ziskind 1 0/0/0 1 17 67
botengyao 1 4/3/0 5 6 60
Greg Greenway 1 0/0/0 1 2 47
Vikas Choudhary (vikasc) 1 1/0/0 2 3 47
Dvoriankin Evgenii 1 0/0/0 1 6 44
htuch 1 1/1/0 1 4 34
Fernando Cainelli 1 0/0/0 1 1 32
asingh-g 1 1/1/0 1 5 18
doujiang24 1 2/2/0 2 2 13
David Schinazi 1 1/1/0 1 2 13
Brian O'Rourke 1 0/0/0 1 3 10
David Goodwin 1 1/1/0 1 1 10
Ting Pan 1 1/1/0 1 2 9
birenroy 1 1/1/0 1 2 6
Gopi K 1 0/0/0 1 2 5
François JACQUES 1 1/1/0 1 3 4
zirain 1 2/2/0 2 2 3
Shivam7-1 1 1/1/0 1 1 2
Kevin Baichoo 1 1/1/0 1 1 1
Bence Béky 1 0/0/0 1 1 1
Loong Dai 1 0/0/0 1 1 1
Namrata Bhave 1 1/1/0 1 1 1
Bin Wu (wu-bin) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
None (duxin40) 0 1/0/1 0 0 0
Qiu Yu (unicell) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Zhewei Hu (Winbobob) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Rohit Agrawal (agrawroh) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Juan Manuel Olle (juanmolle) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Shulin Jia (shulin-sq) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Nandan B N (itsLucario) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Sunay Dagli (sunaydagli) 0 3/0/1 0 0 0
Dennis Kniep (denniskniep) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Shuo Yang (shuoyang2016) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Seth Malaki (electricjesus) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
Brian Sonnenberg (briansonnenberg) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0
None (Yuanguo-notebook) 0 1/0/0 0 0 0

PRs: created by that dev and opened/merged/closed-unmerged during the period

Detailed Reports

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Recent Activity Analysis

The Envoy project on GitHub has seen a significant level of activity, with 1,658 open issues and pull requests as of now. Recent issues indicate ongoing discussions around enhancements, bug fixes, and feature requests, particularly in areas like load balancing, health checks, and security features. Notably, several issues highlight performance concerns, such as increased DNS timeouts after version upgrades and the need for improved logging capabilities.

A recurring theme in the issues is the integration of new features and enhancements that focus on improving performance and usability. For example, there are requests to support advanced rate limiting configurations and to enhance the existing HTTP filters with additional metadata capabilities. Additionally, there are multiple discussions about deprecating older features and improving documentation to aid user understanding.

Issue Details

Recently Created Issues

  1. Issue #35965: Can I import a proto which would be used in the function decodeData of an HTTP filter

    • Priority: Question
    • Status: Open
    • Created: 0 days ago

  2. Issue #35958: Matcher-based Listener filters

    • Priority: Enhancement
    • Status: Open
    • Created: 1 day ago

  3. Issue #35956: Dynamically replace the ADS (xDS) server

    • Priority: Enhancement
    • Status: Open
    • Created: 1 day ago

  4. Issue #35945: MetricsServiceIntegrationTest.BasicFlow (coverage) flaky

    • Priority: Area/Test Flakes
    • Status: Open
    • Created: 1 day ago

  5. Issue #35944: Mobile iOS tests are ~permafailing

    • Priority: Area/Test Flakes
    • Status: Open
    • Created: 1 day ago

Recently Updated Issues

  1. Issue #35958: Matcher-based Listener filters

    • Priority: Enhancement
    • Status: Open
    • Last Updated: 0 days ago

  2. Issue #35956: Dynamically replace the ADS (xDS) server

    • Priority: Enhancement
    • Status: Open
    • Last Updated: 0 days ago

  3. Issue #35945: MetricsServiceIntegrationTest.BasicFlow (coverage) flaky

    • Priority: Area/Test Flakes
    • Status: Open
    • Last Updated: 0 days ago

  4. Issue #35944: Mobile iOS tests are ~permafailing

    • Priority: Area/Test Flakes
    • Status: Open
    • Last Updated: 0 days ago

  5. Issue #35943: Error while building envoy image with source code using envoy-build-ubuntu base image

    • Priority: Question
    • Status: Open
    • Last Updated: 0 days ago

Analysis of Notable Issues

  • The recent influx of questions and enhancement requests indicates that users are actively engaging with the project to address specific use cases, particularly around dynamic configurations and testing reliability.
  • The presence of multiple flaky test reports (#35945 and #35944) suggests that there may be underlying stability issues within the testing framework or specific tests that need attention.
  • The discussion around dynamically replacing the ADS server (#35956) reflects a growing need for flexibility in deployment scenarios, especially in environments where service availability is critical.
  • The issue regarding mobile iOS tests being permafailing (#35944) highlights potential challenges in ensuring cross-platform compatibility and stability.

Overall, these insights suggest that while Envoy continues to evolve with user-driven enhancements, there are critical areas related to testing reliability and dynamic configuration management that require focused attention from maintainers.

Report On: Fetch pull requests



Overview

The analysis of the recent pull requests (PRs) for the Envoy Proxy project reveals a robust and active development environment. The repository currently has 121 open PRs, showcasing a variety of enhancements, bug fixes, and documentation updates. This report will summarize the most recent PRs and provide a detailed analysis of trends and notable aspects.

Summary of Pull Requests

  1. PR #35970: mobile: Fix c-ares initialization on Android

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Addresses a critical initialization issue for DNS resolution on Android, ensuring that the c-ares library functions correctly.
    • Comments: Low risk; testing done via a modified test app.

  2. PR #35964: udp_proxy: fix documentation for access logs

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Corrects discrepancies in access logging documentation, improving clarity for developers.
    • Comments: Low risk; no testing required.

  3. PR #35960: quic: deflake half close test

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Stabilizes a flaky test related to QUIC stream handling, enhancing reliability in testing.
    • Comments: Low risk; focused on test improvements.

  4. PR #35959: Change filter and access logger order in access_log_handlers_

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Adjusts the order of loggers to ensure correct metadata flow in WASM filters.
    • Comments: Discussion around robustness and implementation details ongoing.

  5. PR #35955: docs: Clarify docs for Http11ProxyUpstreamTransport

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Enhances documentation clarity for HTTP/1.1 proxy transport configurations.
    • Comments: Low risk; feedback from reviewers noted.

  6. PR #35953: lua: Add API to expose TLS OIDs for extensions

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Introduces new methods to expose TLS Object Identifiers (OIDs) in Lua, aiding extension developers.
    • Comments: Low risk; includes unit tests.

  7. PR #35952: Followup changes for OrcaLoadReport handling in Router::Filter

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Implements follow-up changes to improve load reporting functionality in routing.
    • Comments: Low risk; integration tests added.

  8. PR #35950: access_log: support UPSTREAM_CONNECTION_ID in UDP and TCP tunneling flows

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Expands access logging capabilities to include connection IDs for non-HTTP flows.
    • Comments: Low risk; thorough testing planned.

  9. PR #35948: deps: Bump io_bazel_rules_go -> 0.50.0

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Updates dependency rules for Go language support in Bazel builds.
    • Comments: Dependency management; low risk.

  10. PR #35947: deps: Bump com_github_grpc_grpc -> 1.66.1

    • State: Open
    • Significance: Updates gRPC dependency, ensuring compatibility with the latest features and fixes.
    • Comments: Dependency management; low risk.

Analysis of Pull Requests

Themes and Commonalities

The current batch of PRs showcases several common themes:

  • Documentation Improvements: Multiple PRs focus on enhancing documentation clarity, such as PR #35964 and PR #35955. This indicates an ongoing effort to ensure that developers have accurate and helpful resources as they work with Envoy Proxy.

  • Testing Stability: Several PRs aim to stabilize tests (e.g., PR #35960 and PR #35970). This reflects a proactive approach to maintaining code quality and reliability, which is crucial for a project with high community engagement like Envoy.

  • Feature Enhancements: New features are being added or improved upon, such as the support for UPSTREAM_CONNECTION_ID in various protocols (PR #35950) and the introduction of new APIs for Lua (PR #35953). This indicates active development aimed at expanding Envoy's capabilities.

Notable Aspects

  • The presence of discussions around implementation details in PRs like #35959 highlights a collaborative environment where contributors are encouraged to provide feedback and suggestions, fostering a culture of shared ownership over the codebase.

  • The variety of topics covered in the open PRs—from mobile-specific changes to core functionality improvements—demonstrates Envoy's versatility as a proxy solution catering to different use cases across various platforms.

Anomalies

  • The number of open PRs (121) suggests that while there is significant activity, it may also indicate potential bottlenecks in review processes or resource allocation for merging contributions into the main branch.

  • Some older PRs remain open without recent activity, which could reflect challenges in prioritizing contributions or addressing complex issues that require more extensive discussion or development effort.

Conclusion

The analysis of recent pull requests reveals a vibrant development ecosystem within the Envoy Proxy project. With active contributions focused on documentation, testing stability, and feature enhancements, the project continues to evolve effectively. However, attention should be given to managing the volume of open PRs to maintain momentum and ensure timely integration of valuable contributions from the community.

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Recent Activity of the Envoy Development Team

Team Members and Their Recent Activities

Ryan Northey (phlax)

  • Commits: 24
  • Recent Work: Focused on CI/CD improvements, including fixing issues related to Docker publishing and updating scripts for better flexibility. Contributed to various bug fixes and enhancements in the build process.
  • Collaborations: Worked closely with the CI team and other developers on integration tasks.

dependabot[bot]

  • Commits: 26
  • Recent Work: Automated dependency updates across various libraries, including setuptools, aiohttp, and protobuf. Ensured that dependencies are kept up-to-date without manual intervention.
  • Collaborations: Primarily operates independently but integrates changes into the main branch.

Ali Beyad (abeyad)

  • Commits: 3
  • Recent Work: Added features to the EngineBuilder API for mobile, including options for DNS retries and configurations for UDP socket buffer sizes.
  • Collaborations: Engaged with mobile development teams to ensure seamless integration of new features.

Gopi Krishna (gopkarthik)

  • Commits: 1
  • Recent Work: Updated function parameters in the grpc_json_transcoder to fix build issues.
  • Collaborations: Minimal recent collaboration noted.

David Goodwin (DavidGoodwin)

  • Commits: 1
  • Recent Work: Updated documentation links to reflect new repository locations for examples.
  • Collaborations: Worked independently on documentation updates.

Dan Zhang (danzh2010)

  • Commits: 5
  • Recent Work: Contributed to enhancements in QUIC support, including adding new interfaces for network connectivity observers.
  • Collaborations: Collaborated with other developers working on QUIC features.

Fredy Wijaya (fredyw)

  • Commits: 14
  • Recent Work: Made significant contributions to mobile development, including testing improvements and feature additions related to HTTP/3 and proxy configurations.
  • Collaborations: Actively worked with mobile teams and contributed to CI processes.

Yanjun Xiang (yanjunxiang-google)

  • Commits: 3
  • Recent Work: Focused on the external processing filter, implementing timeout responses and improving observability features.
  • Collaborations: Engaged with other developers working on the ext_proc filter.

Other Contributors

Several other contributors, including Vikas Choudhary, Brian Surber, and others, have made smaller contributions focusing on various aspects such as bug fixes, feature enhancements, and testing improvements across different modules of the Envoy project.

Patterns and Themes

  1. Active Maintenance of Dependencies: A significant number of commits from dependabot indicate a strong focus on keeping dependencies updated automatically, which is crucial for security and stability.
  2. Mobile Development Focus: There is a noticeable emphasis on mobile-related features, particularly in enhancing HTTP/3 support and improving testing frameworks.
  3. CI/CD Enhancements: Multiple team members are involved in refining CI/CD processes, indicating an ongoing effort to streamline development workflows and improve integration reliability.
  4. Collaboration Across Teams: Many commits show collaboration between different team members, especially in areas like QUIC support and external processing filters, highlighting a cohesive team effort toward shared goals.

Conclusion

The Envoy development team is actively engaged in enhancing the project through regular updates, dependency management, and collaborative feature development. The focus on mobile capabilities alongside robust CI/CD practices reflects a commitment to maintaining high standards in software quality and performance.