Hi, This may not be as nice for kernels as for other downloads because of how nicely organized the kernel mirrors are, but maybe some people will be interested.
Metalink is a system which attempts to improve the download process by increasing availability and guaranteeing integrity. It can give your users a more reliable download by providing multiple links to the same file, which can be switched to if one server is down or fails during transmission. It can also make downloads faster by using multiple resources at once. Metalink lists mirrors with machine readable information on priority and location so their efficient use can be automated by download programs. It can list mirrors around the world, but will automatically default to mirrors closer to you and by priority. The checksum verification process, usually manual and arcane to most people, is automated with Metalink, so files are guaranteed to be an exact copy of the file you downloaded, free of errors. Metalinks can also contain publisher information, Operating System and architecture, language, file descriptions, mutliple files (to be added to a download queue), partial file checksums, and so on. All this extra information allows download programs to do interesting things. Linux Kernel Metalink downloads (All): http://download.packages.ro/metalink/kernel/ More details..."Downloading bliss with Metalink": http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/01/1641247 Partial example .metalink: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <metalink version="3.0" xmlns="http://www.metalinker.org/"; origin="http://prog.infosnel.nl/metalinks/kernel.php/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2.metalink"; generator="http://prog.infosnel.nl/metalinks/kernel.php";> <publisher> <name>Kernel.org</name> <url>http://kernel.org/</url> </publisher> <files> <file name="linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2"> <version>2.6.19</version> <verification> <hash type="md5">443c265b57e87eadc0c677c3acc37e20</hash> <signature type="pgp" file="linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2.sign" /> </verification> <resources> <url type="http" location="al" preference="10">http://www.al.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2</url> <url type="ftp" location="al" preference="20">ftp://ftp.al.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2</url> <url type="http" location="aq" preference="10">http://www.aq.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2</url> <url type="http" location="ag" preference="10">http://www.ag.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2</url </resources> </file> <file name="linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2.sign"> <resources> <url type="http" location="al" preference="10">http://www.al.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2.sign</url> <url type="ftp" location="al" preference="20">ftp://ftp.al.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2.sign</url> <url type="http" location="aq" preference="10">http://www.aq.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2.sign</url> <url type="http" location="ag" preference="10">http://www.ag.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.19.tar.bz2.sign</url> </resources> </file> </files> </metalink> A real .metalink would list all mirrors. Metalink is supported by download managers on Mac, Unix, and Windows. aria2 ( http://aria2.sourceforge.net/ ) is a really nice command line client. You can use command line options to default to mirrors in a certain country (--metalink-location=XX) and other things. The main users of metalink are OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, Arch Linux, and other Linux distributions for ISO downloads. (( Anthony Bryan )) Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ] - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
