First of all, if you don't appreciate this idea, ignore it, don't flame
me, since no one else can come up with a decent idea, just senseless
bickering.
There should be a new layout for the 'restricted' packages. First of all
non-US is misleading in that it implies that they are restricted simply
because of the US, which is false. The layout would look something like
this (simplisticly):
potato (normal)
\main
-Packages
-Packages.gz
\devel
-gcc
-binutils
\base
-base-files
\x11
-xterm
potato-r (restricted)
\main
-Packages-r
-Packages-r.gz
\mail
-mutt
\misc
-package-that-depends-on-libssl-but-otherwise-not-restricted
-gpg
\libs
-libssl
These two layouts could then be overlayed so that it makes one complete
distribution that allows for one CD that could be easily made, as well
mirrors could continue as normal to mirror the unstable/stable/frozen
dists without worry of downloading the restricted packages. This that
mirror in a non-restrcited country could then mirror both and merge them
if desired to create the entire 'restricted' distribution.
dselect would have to be modified to recognize the Package-r files and
combine it virtually with the main Package.
The packages would also need some sort of modifier in the control file to
denote that it is restricted (ie. 'Restricted: yes') so that the current
deb ftp scripts can be modified to cope with it easily, and guard against
maintainers that inadvertently mark their package restricted but upload it
to a server in a restricted country.
Let's see how many ppl shoot this down before i go to bed tonight :)
--
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Ben Collins <b.m.collins@larc.nasa.gov> Debian GNU/Linux
UnixGroup Admin - Jordan Systems Inc. bcollins@debian.org
------ -- ----- - - ------- ------- -- The Choice of the GNU Generation
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