_Great_ idea for apt ...
After using the apt utility for the past few months, I have found it to be one of the most useful utilities included with the Debian distribution ...
I would, however, like to suggest what I believe to be a _great_ idea ...
Apt has the ability to use both the ftp and http protocols. What I would like apt to do (when using http) is to (when downloading Packages.gz) to provide the HTTP server with the date and time that the Packages.gz was last downloaded. (ie. http://ftp1.us.debian.org/debian/slink/main/Packages.cgi?Mon%20Nov%2023%2002%3A08%3A57%201998 ) telling the CGI script that the last time Packages[.gz] from debian/slink/main was downloaded was Mon Nov 23 02:08:57 1998'. This would tell Packages.cgi only to send us the packages that were updated on or after this time. This would eliminate downloading the _whole_ packages.gz file that many modem users probably don't like. After all, it's best to download stuff that hasn't already been downloaded yet, right? :)
Andrew Dvorak
(JCommons)
andy@dvorak.ddns.org
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