Source retrieval

[Yann E. MORIN]

Enrico,
All,

On Saturday 24 May 2008 01:52:04 Enrico Weigelt wrote:
> This is an ideal point to announce one of my projects:
>     Comprehensive Source Database
>     http://sourcefarm.metux.de/
[--SNIP--]

The idea sounds interesting...

> Example: 
> http://sourcefarm.metux.de/robot/query-download-url/?package=binutils&version=2.18.0.0&encoding=tar.gz

Well, here are a few suggestions:
 - default is to redirect to a randomly-picked URL from the list of mirrors
 - allow retrieval of the canonical URL
 - allow retrieval of the MD5sum for the package
 - allow retrieval of the snapshots or pre-releases

Which would give the following API (only a suggestion):

http://..../query-download-url/ : retrieve a package tarball. Parameters:
 - package, mandatory: the package name
 - version, mandatory: the package version
 - encoding, mandatory, the type of extension to retrieve, from the following
   list: {tar,tar.gz,tar.bz2} (others?)
 - canon, optional: if not set, or set to 'no', will choose a URL amongst the
   mirrors; if set to 'yes', will redirect to the canonical URL only; if set
   to anything other than 'yes' or 'no', will invalidate the query.

New URL:
http://..../query-md5-url/ : retrieve a package MD5 sum. Parameters:
 - the sames as for the above, having the same meaning.

Snapshots and pre-releases would be difficult to handle, I guess...
For example, binutils' snapshots are hosted on kernel.org, while official
releases are on gnu.org...

> > I can't aford to host all those files on my small server, hosted at my home.
> > My DSL line is neither fast nor reliable enough to host heavy services such 
> > as mirrors of those files. Bandwidth usage is already high...
> I could mirror it on some of my boxes and add a record to CSDB :)

I guess you and I have the same problem. If our mirrors get used, then the
bandwidth usage will rise to the point where we'd have almost no bandwidth
left for our own use...

Regards,
Yann E. MORIN.

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