On Sun, Sep 23, 2001 at 09:11:01PM -0700, Blars Blarson wrote:
> I find the pseudo-image-kit-2.0 process overly complicated and
> difficult to use, even for an experienced unix administrator.
That's very true.
> If I were to write a better drop-in replacement, would it be
> considered for replacment of the current version?
Don't do it - I've been working on a full replacement for almost a
year.
It is called jigdo (short for Jigsaw Download), and has the following
advantages over the PIK:
- doesn't need rsync, is entirely HTTP/FTP-based
- no need to store complete CD images on the server - they are
generated by downloading the individual .debs and assembling them to
an image according to information in a so-called template file
- the template file is relatively small, so many alternative CDs can
be distributed without space problems
- no need for dedicated CD image servers - all Debian FTP mirrors can
automatically be used for downloading CD images
- it is easy to produce alternative versions of CD images, e.g. J.
Random Hacker could add his own packages to an official Debian CD
and distribute that. He'll *only* need to upload his packages and
the changed template file to his own webspace, *not* the complete CD
contents.
- user-friendly download with a GUI application, on Windows and
Linux!!! (possibly also MacOS later on)
The system already works, although I haven't yet set up a beta site
for Debian CD images. The GUI application is not existent yet
(currently working on it), but I've written a shell script which is
roughly equivalent.
The source tarball can be downloaded from
<http://atterer.net/debian/>, prerelease i386 packages are available
as:
deb http://home.in.tum.de/atterer/debian unstable jigdo
Cheers,
Richard
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