[Fwd:] Debian CD images (2.2 aka "Potato") -- important mirroring information
The message below has just been sent to all known CD image mirrors. If you
have a mirror but didn't receive this, please read it anyway -- and tell me
you're running a mirror ;-)
Regards,
Anne Bezemer
---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> Please read the following carefully and completely!
The Debian team has been working hard on the upcoming new version of it's
Linux distribution, version 2.2 or "Potato". There will be many new CD
images of this version. Several important things will change, which is why
I'm contacting you at this point.
First of all, the total number of CDs will increase from 10 to 28, thereby
tripling the required disk space from 6 to about 18 Gigs. If you
previously mirrored only images for one architecture (e.g. i386), there
will be 4 images instead of 2; the same holds for the source CDs.
It is very understandable that you may want to limit your mirror to only a
subset of the images. The i386 and source CDs are most popular; the alpha
and (new) powerpc images are expected to follow at some distance.
Secondly, we now provide two versions of the Binary-1 CD for all
architectures, as well as two versions of Source-1. One version, with
NONUS in the name, contains several programs that may not be re-exported
from the US, like gnupg (GPG) and ssh. If you are a US-based mirror, you
are expressly FORBIDDEN BY LAW to make these NONUS images available on a
publicly accessible mirror. However, everyone is allowed to mirror the
other version of the Binary-1 and Source-1 images, without NONUS in the
name, on which the non-US-exportable stuff has been omitted. (Note that
there is also no problem mirroring the Binary-2, Binary-3, Source-2 and
Source-3 images, that do not contain any "forbidden" stuff.)
So, if you are a US-based mirror, you may not only want to reduce your
architecture subset, but also prevent NONUS from being mirrored.
A solution for both issues is not easy when using "standard" mirroring
tools like FTP (YOU REALLY SHOULD NOT USE THAT!!!) or rsync. However, some
time ago, we have developed the "debcdmirror" tool, which is not only very
bandwidth efficient to the server you're mirroring from, but also lets
you specify exactly what you want (and do not want) to mirror.
All information on the debcdmirror tool, and the Pseudo-Image Kit (which
it uses), is available from our webpage dedicated to mirroring,
http://cdimage.debian.org/ch4.html
Our primary distribution method for end-users is the already mentioned
Pseudo-Image Kit, which uses the rsync protocol to connect to the CD image
mirrors. We discourage FTP/HTTP access to the CD image mirrors, because
that would concentrate far too much network traffic to the very few CD
image mirrors. Therefore, if you are not currently offering rsync access
to your mirror, we strongly suggest you add that service. It's quite easy;
see at the bottom of the Pseudo-Image Kit's README (Linux/UNIX version),
available at
http://cdimage.debian.org/~costar/pseudo-image-kit/
UPDATE: cdimage.debian.org::debian-cd/ currently does not have the old
(2.1, aka "Slink") images any longer; it does have a potato_test/
directory with the latest beta-images of the upcoming version 2.2
("Potato"). You can get an impression of what things will look like with
the command "rsync -rvn cdimage.debian.org::debian-cd/", or by pointing
your webbrowser to http://cdimage.debian.org/cd-images/. Note that the
"debcdmirror" script does&should not mirror the ..._test/ directories and
.raw files. The Official CD images will be placed in a 2.2_r0/ directory
and have .iso extentions, that will be mirrored by "debcdmirror".
UPDATE2: The Official 2.2 r0 images may appear already tomorrow evening
(i.e. Sunday 13 Aug). If you don't have time to set up debcdmirror and
still want to prevent a disk overflow and/or unwanted NONUS mirroring, it
might be wise to shut down your current mirroring utility for the time
being.
Since things seem to be happening quite quickly now, I probably won't mail
you again when the Official images have appeared. Once
"rsync -rvn cdimage.debian.org::debian-cd/" shows a 2.2_r0 directory,
there's something worth mirroring there ;-)
If anything is unclear, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Regards (and thanks for the service!),
Anne Bezemer
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