Configuring sources.list during install: idea

[Ilkka Tuohela <Ilkka.Tuohela@nixu.fi>]

We have a fairly big local network of debian hosts. I just got this
silly idea how to configure sources.list during install...

First, we share a local pre-configured sources.list available with
NFS and http. I really would like to be able to enter this URL when
configuring sources.list, preferably giving just the URL and letting
installer fetch sources.list from network. This should not be even
hard to add to the installer, methinks? 

Another idea was a little bit more complicated: instead of entering
the URL by yourself you could add automatic configuration as one
possibility, just like wpad proxy configuration proposal. We could 
simply support one type of DNS record for this, nothing as fancy as
WPAD which defines multiple protocols and options.

So, for example in our network I could simply add a DNS record
apt-source-potato 3600 IN TXT "http://potato.domain.com/sources.list";

Only thing we really have to define is what kind of distribution 
specific DNS names so that you can have debian-install-potato and 
apt-source-woody, or just have debian-install and let the 
installer parse it (adding for example .pototo or .woody to the URL?)
Of course, this could be used to get a complete host profile as well
(what packages to install, whatever), but I'm not thinking that far
yet.

Notice, this option could be completely free to use if you like want 
so there should be no big security issues.

Anyone interested? At least being able to fetch a sources.list with
HTTP is important, the other option is interesting but not so urgent,
just quite easy to implement if we specify it properly.

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