[CentOS-devel] Metalinks for CentOS (all mirrors & checksums in one file)

[Karanbir Singh]

Anthony L. Bryan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Still seeing if you'd like to use metalinks for your ISO downloads.
> 
> Metalinks contain mirror and p2p locations along with checksums and other
> metadata for faster and easier downloads. Downloads are distributed between
> mirrors and checksums are automatically verified when it finishes. Here's a
> good description:
> 
> 'Metalink makes complex download pages obsolete by replacing long lists of
> download mirrors and BitTorrent trackers with a single .metalink file. As
> you might have already guessed, a .metalink file is a file that tells a
> download manager all the different ways it can download a file. The file
> itself takes the form of an open XML standard that can list an unlimited
> number of HTTP and FTP sources as well as BitTorrent trackers and ed2k and
> magnet links.'
> (http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/08/28/metalinks-integrated-bittorrent-htt
> p-and-ftp-downloads/)
> 
> There's a metalink for CentOS at
> http://www.metalinker.org/samples/CentOS-4.4-i386-LiveCD.iso.metalink if
> anyone wants to try it out. Here's what part of it looks like:
> 
>     <file name="CentOS-4.4-i386-LiveCD.iso">
>       <version>4.4</version>
>       <verification>
>         <hash type="md5">747c9e33a10fdbf5919d9fd188ab7d23</hash>
>       </verification>
>       <resources>
>         <url type="http"
> preference="100">http://altruistic.lbl.gov/mirrors/centos/4.4/isos/i386/Cent
> OS-4.4-i386-LiveCD.iso</url>
>         <url type="http"
> preference="100">http://centos.mirror.nac.net/4.4/isos/i386/CentOS-4.4-i386-
> LiveCD.iso</url>
>         <url type="http"
> preference="100">http://dist1.800hosting.com/centos/4.4/isos/i386/CentOS-4.4
> -i386-LiveCD.iso</url>
>         <url type="http" location="us"
> preference="100">http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/centos/4.4/isos/i386/CentOS-4.4-i
> 386-LiveCD.iso</url>
>       </resources>
> 
> Download clients are available for Unix, Mac, & Windows. aria2 RPMs for Red
> Hat Enterprise Linux 4 are at
> http://dries.ulyssis.org/rpm/packages/aria2/info.html
> 
> OpenOffice.org and many Linux/BSD distributions are using metalink. Here's a
> few places:
> 
> http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/magnet.html
> http://en.opensuse.org/Released_Version#Metalink
> http://desktopbsd.net/index.php?id=73
> http://www.pcbsd.org/?p=download
> http://www.archlinux.org/download/
> http://www.redwall-firewall.com/content/view/14/33/
> http://yui.mine.nu/berry/edownload.php
> http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Puppy210
> 

We spoke about this earlier, and I also asked for comments - we didnt 
get too many here on this list. But, it would still be a good idea to 
get this somehow integrated into the CentOS release process.

Making it easier and adding more options to spread loads is always a 
good idea IMHO.


-- 
Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219 at icq