[CentOS-devel] Public mirrors leaking ISO files

[John R. Dennison]

On Fri, Jul 08, 2011 at 10:00:09PM -0600, Shawn Thompson wrote:
> "leaks"
> 
> This is just the silliest thing I have ever heard. This happens all
> the time, even with Windows. I see no cause for alarm, especially
> since this is FOSS. What's the problem?

[Please do not top-post to the CentOS mailing lists as per list policy.]

Policy is that until the release is announced on www.centos.org and the
mailing lists it is not official and is subject to recall and reissue.

If a mirror leaks content before "bitflip" and such a recall takes place
anyone that downloaded that content and installed it will find
themselves in a very precarious position as they are using unsupported
package content at that moment and this can lead to all sorts of support
nightmares.  There is precedent for this; there have been cases in the
past where ISOs have needed to be reissued after seeding has initially
begun.

Content is initially seeded to the mirrors with read access denied for
just this reason.  When it is determined that all (or most) mirrors are
fully seeded and that content is gold the bits are flipped on the master
mirrors and all the other mirrors worldwide will pick up this change and
open then content to the public.

Shawn, you are working on your own release at this point and as such I
urge you to take heed of processes that have worked for many years, and
not only for CentOS but for many, if not all, other major releases.  You
would do very well to heed the experiences of those that have gone
before.  It may seem "silly" to you but there is sound engineering
behind the decision to do things this way.




							John
-- 
In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems
unfair that he did not also limit his stupidity.

-- Konrad Hermann Josef Adenauer (1876-1967), West German Chancellor from
   1949-1963, as quoted in Through Russian Eyes: President Kennedy's 1036
   Days (1973) by Anatoli-Andreevich Gromyko 
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