Re: Files in the archive with no extension cause problems
On Tue, Feb 05, 2002 at 07:42:08PM -0500, James A. Treacy wrote:
> There are files which boot floppies controls that have no file
> extension. This causes problems because apache assumes that they have
> mime type text/plain and newbies don't can't figure out how to download
> the file. A good example is dists/stable/main/disks-i386/current/linux .
> Try wget -S http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/current/linux
>
> Here are some alternatives:
> - add .htaccess files and add lines like:
> <Files linux>
> ForceType application/octet-stream
> </Files>
> The problem with this is that not all mirrors are running apache.
> Additionally, if a site has set 'AllowOverride None', apache will give
> an error message when users try to download the file.
> - Have sites add 'DefaultType application/octet-stream' to either the
> apache config file or to a .htaccess file. Using a .htaccess file has
> the same problem as the first example. Besides the problem of getting
> hundreds of mirrors to modify their apache config, there is the
> additional problem that there are probably files in the archive that
> are plain text that would then be consider as binaries.
> - rename all binaries with no file extension
>
> What I suggest is that starting with the next release any files that
> aren't plain text be given an extension that will convince apache that
> they are binaries. The biggest hassle here will be changing all the
> links to the files.
>
> If you don't do anything about this, the webmasters will be forced to
> send all mail from lusers complaining about this problem to this list. :)
This is not really as bad as it sounds. I looked at what would need to
change for the linux file. What would be a good extension, linux.bin?
It's a dozen places in rescue.sh and release.sh each, rdev.sh and
bootconfig.c for a couple lines each, and syslinux.cfg and other
bootloader files. The worst part is the documentation and messages,
which I'd be willing to take on -- and those would not cause many bugs.
In the ppc area, bootargs is a text document, so no problem. Same with
any kernel-configs.
The apus bootstrap folder has several binaries also, so that would be
a little additional work. But the dozen or so people it would impact
would probably be forgiving.
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