Re: AW: Wish for enhancement: Extending .list with size and possibly md5sum
On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, Wyss, Otto wrote:
> >> Since I can't use Rsync to download, I have to use ftp which might not
> >> relyable download. While I can check for correctness of any debian
> >> packages, it's not possible for ordinary files (i.e. disk images). If
> >> the .list files contains besides the filename the size and possibly the
> >> md5sum as well, this check could simply be implemented into the
> >> make-pseudo-image script.
> >
> >1. Packages downloaded by make-pseudo-image may have errors; rsync will
> >
> As I said before I _can't_ use rsync!
>
> >2. .deb packages already have md5sums&sizes, see the Packages(.gz) files,
> > e.g.
> http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/slink/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz
> >
> It's not the debian packages or the source packages which makes trouble,
> it's all the supporting files (i.e.docs, images, etc). Any file in i.e.
> http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-i386 weren't listed
[wrong, see below]
> anywhere with size and md5sum. This is also true for any file in
> http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists etc.
Ah, so _that_ is your problem!
> >3. The CD images have md5sums, see http://cdimage.debian.org/faq.html, 8th
> Q.
> >
> Sorry as much as I like to to download a 650MBytes file this is simply out
> of question for me. I have to use ftp and limit my downloads to as few files
> as necessary.But to get a bootable debian CD I have the following choises:
Please note that you will never get a bootable (or even usable!) CD by just
grabbing the files mentioned in the .list and throwing them on a CD.
You at least need the debian-cd program (http://cdimage.debian.org/ch32.html)
which in turn needs a relatively complete mirror of the entire directory
structure of the architecture of choice. The .list files are of little use
here. Besides, they're incomplete because they don't mention files that are
changed during the image creation, such as the Packages(.cd)(.gz) files.
> 1. Wait until I can buy a potato/woody released CD.
>
> 2. Downloading any necessary file and check filesize manually of any file
> which isn't listed in either Packages.gz or Sources.gz.
The /disks-*/ have their own md5sum.txt file. For other files you can use the
top-level ls-lR file (e.g. http://ftp.debian.org/ls-lR.gz), but that's only
sizes of course. There are several automated mirroring tools available which
check file sizes using the ls-lR file.
> 3. Persuade anyone to provide the missing information in any usefull way.
File a bug against ftp.debian.org to provide a top-level md5sum.txt file.
(Actually, I think that's a very good idea.)
> To add filesize and md5sum of each single file in the .lists files would be
> suffice for me.
Since not all files are listed, it still wouldn't be perfect. Probably
useless, too. The .list files were never designed for this problem, and I
don't have any intention to change that.
> To do this with tab separate files mustn't break to many
> dependent programs.
There's only one dependent program, and that's the Pseudo-Image Kit. And yes,
it will break.
> Okay another way to solve my problem would be if any debian directory which
> doesn't have a Packages.gz or Source.gz does have a Files.gz with all the
> necessary informations. Maybe it could have a similar structure as
> Packages.gz or Source.gz.
I don't think you'll get much support for that, since it's much more work than
a simple md5sum.txt file.
Regards,
Anne Bezemer
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