First off, thank you for your compliments, Michael!
> When you are setting up a new system you have to install a number
> of new pieces of software. It would be nice if you could run more
> than once instance of apt.
This is a wish often voiced by our users. So far, we have not really
found the time to conceive how to implement this as it's
non-trivial and there are many design decisions involved (and we
have been busy integrating archive signatures into APT, and getting
sarge ready).
If you would like to discuss this issue further, may I suggest
taking it to the APT development list, which is
deity@lists.debian.org?
> It would also be nice if I could connect to a number of mirrors
> and download from multiple sources. Maybe running a trace route
> to all of the apt mirrors at install and using the top 5 or
> whatever closest mirrors.
Well, apt-spy helps you find the fastest mirror. The main problem
with multiple connections, as I see it, is that mirrors may not all
be exactly the same. In fact, only the primary mirrors are
push-updated, and of these, only one of two exist per country -- if
at all. Thus, it would probably not make sense to connect to three
others, as they'd be too far away. After all, mirrors also exist to
lower the load on the individual server, and one of the best ways to
do this is using geography and to expect the users to choose the
closest mirror.
Secondary mirrors are updated once every 24 hours, so any two of
them may not be in sync. Of course you could just connect to find
out that it does not have the file yet, then use another mirror, but
then I doubt there would be a real benefit.
One thing we are working on is providing diffs between package
indices and packages, so that the downloads required for updates are
going to become less
> Splitting up a file into multiple peaces would be nifty, but it
> would add a greater level of complexity. As would a p2p model
> like BitTorrent, which I would most defiantly donate my spare
> bandwidth to apt. I think if there is multiple files to be
> downloaded then it should only download one file from one mirror
> or something to that effect, possibly going down the list of
> mirrors that is sorted by distance from the computer. I am not
> sure how
Again, if you would like to discuss the technical details, please
come to the deity mailing list.
> I am not sure if I download a whole new package list every time I do a
> apt-get update. But it would be nice if I notified the mirror when I
> last updated and then the server only responds with the new listings.
> This would save a few seconds and a few k, but though seconds and k
> add up.
This is being worked on. Unfortunately, I do not have the URL handy
right now. Maybe someone else has it?
> I am not sure that everyone knows about apt-get clean, maybe an
> automated system that runs apt-get clean periodically would be in
> order.
Check out cron-apt.
Cheers,
--
Please do not send copies of list mail to me; I read the list!
.''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debian.org>
: :' : proud Debian developer, admin, user, and author
`. `'`
`- Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing a system
Invalid/expired PGP subkeys? Use subkeys.pgp.net as keyserver!
"the strength of women comes from the fact
that psychology cannot explain us.
men can be analyzed, women merely adored."
-- oscar wilde
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature