On Thu, 1 Jul 2004, Sascha Kersken wrote: > Hi all, > > wouldn't it be a nice idea to make the http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi > script accept the name of the requested file (e.g. httpd-2.0.50.tar.gz) as > path info and pass it to the automatically selected mirror? This would allow > everyone to link to any specific download file without having to choose a > single mirror in advance.
There is another script (with the same back-end) that does almost this. See, for example: http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/httpd/httpd-2.0.50.tar.gz This presents a list rather than directing you to a single mirror. The problems with just sending a redirect are: 1. you have no alternatives if the mirror happens to be bad, and 2. it is not clear enough that the download is coming from a mirror, not apache.org. (Our mirrors are not trusted, so it is important that people realize they are using a mirror and must check signatures against the apache.org site.) Joshua.
