ISO downloads (higher availability & integrity) with Metalink

[Matt Zimmerman]

I'm CCing your proposal to mirrors at ubuntu.com, which reaches approximately
the right people to consider it (the sysadmins who manage the mirror
infrastructure).

On Sat, Mar 03, 2007 at 02:48:08PM -0500, Anthony Bryan wrote:
> 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 ]
> 
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-- 
 - mdz