Re: Secondary CD/DVD Image Downloading
On Thu, Aug 07, 2008 at 12:44:04PM -0500, Bumpy Light wrote:
> First, phrasing it in that way sounds hostile with which to begin. This
> may explain in part the lack of responses. The words "hoarding" and
> "unnecessary" are hostile words.
Well, yes, some hostility is bound to arise when one is a mirror
administrator and has to look at various kinds of abuse every day :) :(
This particular phenomenon could generally be the result of benevolent user
actions, but that doesn't change the fact that a public mirror can be
heavily burdened even if a bunch of benevolent people simultaneously do
something that doesn't burden each of them individually.
If that eventually leads to shutting mirror sites down because of too much
traffic - which actually happens all the time - then we can't just keep
assuming good faith and precise knowledge from each and every downloader,
we have to do more to make sure that they are all guided to the proper use
cases.
> Second, there are those of us who are paranoid about net difficulties, or
> about allowing automated updates. One thinks of *cough* Windows *cough*. It
> may be unfair, but there it is. The urge for control and backup is deep.
That's a valid point. Although, it should be mitigated by the common
availability of net access as well as the variety of mirrors which should be
known to all.
Then again, our concentration on cdimage.d.o doesn't make the variety of
mirrors particularly obvious...
> Third, when there is nothing at all, not even a simple text file, to
> explain clearly which need to be downloaded and which *don't* need to be
> downloaded, a person may feel the need to cautiously download all of them,
> just in case they are needed. Not providing such details at the point of
> download violates basic rules for giving instructions.
Yep. That's why I suggested HEADER.html in each and every subdirectory
(i.e. actual point of download).
> I suggest this, for example:
>
> [BEGIN BLOCK]
>
> URL: http://ftp.ticklers.org/debian-cd/4.0_r4/i386/bt-dvd/
>
> filename: explanation.text
>
> actual enclosed text:
>
> The following instructions apply to downloading the binary
> distribution of Debian 4.0r4.
>
> If you are new to Debian, do download this file and allow the torrent
> to finish:
>
> debian-40r4-i386-DVD-1.iso.torrent
>
> Only download these files and allow their torrents to finish if you
> wish to have a complete set of all Debian files on DVD. They are not
> needed, if you plan to allow an installation from the first DVD to
> automatically find, and download, any further necessary files from
> the Internet:
>
> debian-40r4-i386-DVD-2.iso.torrent
> debian-40r4-i386-DVD-3.iso.torrent
>
> Only download this file and allow the torrent to finish if you have
> already downloaded an earlier version of Debian 4.0 and wish to have
> an updated DVD which will bring the older set of DVD diskettes up to
> date:
>
> debian-update-4.0r4-i386-DVD-1.iso.torrent
>
> (Please note that if you do not have an earlier version of Debian
> 4.0, then the above DVD will be useless to you. Also if you have
> already downloaded a full or partial set of Debian 4.0r4, meaning at
> least DVD 1, then you won't need the special update DVD diskette).
>
> The above instructions assume you are using a properly configured
> BitTorrent client.
>
> [END BLOCK]
>
>
> This was a quick and dirty post. Edit the text as needed for style and
> clarity, and
> for CD-R or other media.
We probably first need support for putting these descriptive texts in the
right place in the software that generates the debian-cd/ directory tree,
and the verbiage can be tuned later.
Ideally, the location of the helpful text would be something that appears
near the top of the page, so that it can't be missed. For example with
HEADER.html (Apache will show it above the directory listing) or with
a file named so that it always sorts at the top of the directory listing.
Or even better, both.
--
2. That which causes joy or happiness.
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