+1 this is the last special /ajax functionality the webui is using (beyond the http reql connections)

@danielmewes -- putting this in 2.1 so it's in a milestone and we don't forget about it, but feel free to move it out if there isn't room.

There was some relevant discussion about this in #2979

We should consider exposing this functionality as a function on the connection object instead of a ReQL term I think, like discussed over there.

Yeah, I definitely think this should be a method or variable on the connection rather than a ReQL term.

To bring something else over from the other thread: I really prefer the name conn.server_uuid() over conn.whoami().

I think server_id is better, for consistency with the system tables.

Sure, server_id sounds good.

👍 for conn.server_id()

to clarify, will this return the uuid of the server, the server name, or the hostname of the server?

This will return the UUID of the server as a string.

Also, it's not a query. So if you run >>> conn.server_id() in the Python console, it just returns the UUID as a string. You don't write conn.server_id().run(conn) or anything like that.

It'd be super super nice if I could get the server name as well without having to query server_config

What if we had conn.server() and it returned {name: X, id: Y}?

If conn.server() internally compiles to r.secret_magic_whoami().run(conn), then that's easy. If conn.server() returns the value of a local variable that was transmitted during the handshake, then that's difficult.

It doesn't have to be a term, we have NOREPLY_WAIT as a query-type rather than a term-type, we could add another query-type SERVER_INFO or something.

What if we had conn.server() and it returned {name: X, id: Y}?

👍 (assuming implementing this isn't too painful).

I think either conn.server_id() or conn.server() would be sufficient.
I think we should implement the latter with {name: X, id: Y} if it's about the same amount of work, and the former returning only the ID if it's easier.

A conn.server_id() sounds good.

Marking settled with conn.server_id(), or conn.server() if it's similarly easy to implement.

This would be really useful for the web UI, and for rethinkdb import (see #4617).

Would also be really useful for gorethink, currently the way I am checking host status is a bit hacky.

in review with @VeXocide, CR 3317

This is great, Thanks for the work guys!

Done in next, will be in 2.2.