Lasse Collin <lasse.col...@tukaani.org> skribis: > On 2015-11-01 Ludovic Courtès wrote: >> Lasse Collin <lasse.col...@tukaani.org> skribis: >> >> > On 2015-10-30 Ludovic Courtès wrote: >> >> [...] >> >> >> Guix does automatically mirror tarballs via its “substitute” >> >> mechanism. However, users can turn it off, in which case they end >> >> up downloading the tarball from the upstream URL specified in the >> >> package recipe. >> > >> > OK. :-) Why would users turn it off though? >> >> The substitute mechanism is very generic; it’s not just about >> mirroring tarballs: >> >> http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Substitutes.html >> >> Some people might prefer to build things locally rather than download >> pre-built items. > > That makes sense, but I don't understand how it implies that the source > packages will then be downloaded from upstream servers.
It might sound counter-intuitive, but our server at gnu.org provides substitutes for “things” users could do locally; these “things” include building software, and downloading source. Quoting the above page: Substitutes can be anything resulting from a derivation build (see Derivations). Of course, in the common case, they are pre-built package binaries, but source tarballs, for instance, which also result from derivation builds, can be available as substitutes. > Anyway, I'm sorry for the hassle and for perhaps making a mountain out > of a molehill. No problem. It is best if URLs remain stable over time, but I understand there are cost constraints related to hosting. Maybe an option for you in the longer term would be to use a service such as savannah.gnu.org, which could host tarballs virtually forever and which is mirrored. Thanks, Ludo’.
