Re: better RSYNC mirroring , for .debs and others

[Jacob Kuntz <jpk@cape.com>]

you're quite right. why are we using rsync anyway? in it's current state
it's a waste of resources except for block-oriented files like cdimages.
wouldn't it make more sense to use something like mirror or wget untill
debdiff matures? are mirror admins required to use rsync?

another tought: would it be possible to impliment an alternative Packages.gz
that works more like a database? ie, fixed length fields, etc? that would
make rsync noticeably more effective.

Tom Rothamel (tom-11025@onegeek.org) wrote:
> I do happen to think that rsync is an inefficent solution to archive
> mirroring, however, as it seems it would need to scan and checksum a
> huge number of files every time it runs. Probably a better way would
> be to have dinstall[1] generate a list of changes it makes to the
> archive, and have people mirroring the archive use those lists to
> figure out what needs to be downloaded.
> 
> This would also have the benefit of making it easy to ensure that
> archive mirrors are always in a consistent state. (ie, Packages.gz is
> updated after new packages have been downloaded, but before old
> packages are deleted.)
> 

-- 
(jacob kuntz)                    jpk@cape.com jake@{megabite,underworld}.net
(megabite systems)                       "think free speech, not free beer."