On Tue, 13 Aug 2002, Aaron Bannert wrote: > Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 12:35:47 -0700 > From: Aaron Bannert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Henk P. Penning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Mirror reorganization > > On Tue, Aug 13, 2002 at 08:44:09PM +0200, Henk P. Penning wrote: > > your problem and fine proposal assume that mirrors carry > > the 'historical' stuff. If mirrors only carried the 'current' > > stuff the problem would go away, and some maintenance would > > become less critical (the index.html's you propose are great, > > but leave ftp users 'in the cold'). > > I wasn't aware that the ASF did any FTP at all, let alone though mirrors.
See http://www.apache.org/mirrors/ ; ftp/http ~ 50/50 > FTP users can navigate to the right directory and look for the highest > numbered version of a particular distribution, the index.html just > makes it easier (besides, that's what HTML was designed for :). Hm, if http users need index.html files, then ftp users need README files. > > As I said earlier, there are reasons for the mirrors NOT to carry > > the 'historical' stuff : 1) confusing and 2) nobody uses them. > > I disagree. I've used my own mirror for retrieving older distributions > on many occasions. It also serves another significant purpose: backups. You trust your own mirror, of course :-). I think that when Joe Average, on occasion, is looking for something 'odd', he/she would go to www.apache.org and not to a mirror. Who trusts all the mirrors to have everything all of the time ? Nobody. That's reason 1 why mirrors shouldn't carry 'old' stuff. ... and mirrors is not the way to organise backups. > > So, isn't it wise to FIRST decide if mirrors should carry > > the old stuff, at all ? I'm against it, but I'm flexible :-). > > You bring up a good point. What are the issues behind not wanting to > mirror the historical distributions? reason 1 : see above. reason 2 : For Joe Average al these versions are very confusing. Less than 1% of the jakarta stuff is interesting for 99% of the users. > As a mirror admin I wouldn't mind mirroring all source/binary > distributions. It's not that I mind; it's because I think it is useless (for experts) and confusing (for non-experts). > As an ASF member I'd like to have our mirrors do whatever > they can to improve reliability and reduce the bandwidth and hosting > costs of the apache.org sites. I agree; So what's better, regarding the historical stuff 1. ( serve all the mirrors the historical stuff AND serve all the experts the historical stuff ) 2. ONLY serve all the experts the historical stuff I think 2 is better. Lean, mean mirrors who don't bother the source too much. > -aaron regards. Henk Penning Henk P. Penning, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University \__/ \ Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands. \__/ Telephone: +31-30-2534106, fax: 2513791, NIC-handle: HPP1 _/ \__/ \ News.answers http://www.cs.uu.nl/cgi-bin/faqwais \__/ \__/ \__/
