Re: Testing and downloading., use rsync, avoid pseudo-kit

[Walter Tautz <wtautz@math.uwaterloo.ca>]

On Tue, 6 Nov 2001, hongisto wrote:

> I am interested in downloading and trying Debian on a sparc
> platform.  However the method of getting to your iso image
> files completely and udderly escapes me.
> 
> Could you give me a direct link to the ftp site?  Thanks.
> 
> 
Basically what you want to do is go to an rsync server:

in particular you should find a server listed in

http://cdimage.debian.org/rsync-mirrors.html

and then run rsync sitename:: note the :: is important. This will
list the archives available. For example, if one of the directories
says debian-cd then you could run

if you run rysnc <sitename>::debian-cd/ to see what is in in this directory.
When you will eventually find a directory of cdimage. In my case I run


rsync --verbose --progress --stats --block-size=8192 \
             server.somewhere.org::<path to cdimage file>

			 where <server.somewhere.org> corresponds to an entry in
			 the above url and <path to cdimage file> does NOT begin with /

			 probably something like
			 cd-images/2.2_rev3/<architecture>/binary-<arch>-1.iso


			 the important thing is you can query an rysnc site without
			 necessarily downloading anyting.

     rsync <somethere.sever>:: will list available directories
	 to get stuff inside add name of directory after :: and append /
	 and keep going until you find what you are looking for. then use the
	 above command line. READ the manpage of rsync



	 AVOID the pseudo-kit like the PLAGUE. It is utterly useless and outmoded.
	 By using rsync you are able to update and image via a cronjob. MOre
	 importantly you can interrupt the process at anytime and resume it 
	 at  a later time. The option --block-size says to do a checksum on
	 each block on both ends of the connection. Only if there is a different
	 will that block be downloaded and placed into your image.


	 -walter