> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nicola Ken Barozzi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 8:36 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Maven and [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> 
> Tim O'Brien wrote:
> > What about having an XML description of the contents of a 
> repository?  
> > 
> > Such a description could serve multiple purposes, it could 
> be used to 
> > enumerate known mirrors, it could be used to segment the 
> "namespace" - 
> > say we reach some agreement with Sun and all sun artifacts 
> fall into a 
> > namespace of sun-* and must be redirected to a Sun server, 
> etc.  This 
> > XML file could be used by tools that want to provide a list 
> of every 
> > possible artifact.
> > 
> > What if every Maven repository knew of every other Maven repository 
> > because they all shared a common resolution.xml file (think 
> /etc/hosts 
> > before the existence of DNS - hackish but it worked).
> 
> This is something that is already present in the JJar[1] project.
> 
> Wouldn't it suffice to just tell the system in what 
> repository to look for to get a certain artifact?
> 

Sure, you could do this, but then you get into the problem of
management.  The early internet became unwieldy because every /etc/hosts
was explicit, then came DNS.

Consider ibiblio.org, if every artifact was associated with an
organization (apache.org ->
http://http://www.apache.org/dist/java-repository/), then you could
(optionally) configure your client to only download an artifact from an
authoritative server for that particular artifact.  You could use some
file like resolution.xml to just provide pointers to ASF managed
resources - say a version of the ASF maven repository at one of the
mirrors.  

This way there is never a need to create one centralized conglomeration
of artifacts.  You could have many maven repositories all containing
only a portion of the entire "artifact space".

Tim


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