Hi all:
I've been following the whole DVD iso access questions and such for a while, and while talking to some people on #centos-mirror during the 5.5 push, some thoughts occurred to me.
Presently, it is my understanding that there are two different repos maintained: ones with dvd images, and ones without. This seems needlessly painful and wasteful of the time and resources of our dedicated Centos volunteer administrators. I understand at least some of the reasons it exists: there are some mirrors that don't have the space for the DVDs or for other reasons wish not to carry them. However, times are changing, and I think that many, if not most, centos mirror operators would prefer to carry the DVD isos. In fact, I'd almost expect future major releases of CentOS (6+) to distribute DVD isos instead of the CD disk 1 of xx isos.
So, I propose that the dvd-less mirror system is eliminated (all msync mirrors carry DVDs). No special ACLs either... Its easy to add a --exclude "*DVD*" to the rsync line for those that wish to not carry the DVDs. I also think that with sufficient announcement and time (say 1-3 months), this shouldn't be an issue. My understanding is that officially its required for anyone who operates a CentOS mirror to be subscribed to this list, and thus they should receive the announcement. In addition, a note can be added to the msync MOTD conveying this. If others have problems, I think the CentOS team would have done their due diligence; the fault would rest with those not paying attention to lists. After all, all things change and evolve, and I think this is a natural evolution for the CentOS mirror team.
--Jim Administrator, centos.eecs.wsu.edu.