ISO downloads (higher availability & integrity) with Metalink

[Anthony Bryan]

Hi,

If anyone wants to join in with testing or feedback:
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/metalink-iso-downloads

Metalink can help with Ubuntu ISO downloads. Numerous other Linux/BSD
distributions, OpenOffice.org, and cURL make use of it. It is a file
format and system supported by download programs.
Metalink has the following advantages:
* List multiple FTP/HTTP/P2P sources for a download. A .metalink for
an ISO will list all mirrors that it is available from. (This allows
for faster downloading with segmented multi-source downloads, if you
want).
* Some ISPs and organizations don't allow P2P, so it's good to have
the FTP/HTTP sources.
* If one link or server fails, download automatically continues using another.
* Automatic full file checksum verification at end of transfer.
* Automatic error correction for downloads in progress and repairing
of corrupted downloads (using optional chunk checksums/repair
info/segment hashes).
* Ability to give certain mirrors or P2P sources priority.
* List location information (by country) for mirrors, so downloads can
be filtered by location.
* Simplifies download page layout (which currently contain many pages
of redundant mirror lists).
* No server side changes or tracker necessary.
* GPLed Clients for Mac, Unix, and Windows, along with non-Free
clients. (aria2 included in feisty).

People have been using Metalinks to download Ubuntu, Edubuntu, and
Kubuntu ISOs for almost a year from
http://download.packages.ro/metalink/ (There are multiple GPL programs
for Metalink generation).

You can test metalink downloads with aria. Install it ('apt-get
install aria2' on feisty or http://aria2.sourceforge.net/ ) then use
it with 'aria2c
http://download.packages.ro/metalink/ubuntu/ubuntu-6_10-desktop-i386_iso.metalink'

-- 
(( Anthony Bryan
  )) Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]