[Mageia-dev] Mirror list for apps (LONG mail)

Wed Nov 3 20:04:59 CET 2010

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 19:47, Olivier Thauvin
+<nanardon at nanardon.zarb.org> wrote:
+[...]
+> So, question and my own POV about this:
+> 1) /etc/product.id
+>  * I don't like this file, I think it is redundant with
+>    /etc/mandriva-release
+
+It appeared for several reasons, in order to have a consistent scheme
+to identify several Mandriva products: an ISO release, a specific
+media, a set of media, a physical product, etc. It used to be spec'ed,
+but not properly reviewed, neither strongly/fully implemented. See
+http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/product_id (it never left the draft stage
+actually).
+
+It could have been only an int, or a hash string, putted against a
+database to get a human readable label, but that would be then, less
+human readable in the first place.
+
+>  * Why "basic" and not "Free" since it is the "product" flag ? Dunno
+>  * Notice "cooker" does not appear in this file
+
+It could. But here, provided it's a stable release, "cooker" is not
+supposed to appear.
+
+Given the new situation, I suggest to use a /etc/release file, somehow
+like the /etc/mandriva-release file, but being strongly structured
+(/etc/mandriva-release wasn't, in the long run), so we can have at
+least:
+ - product name (Mageia)
+ - version
+ - arch
+ - branch (or something stating the unstable/stable release state)
+ - build number (in case of automated builds, someday).
+
+with mandatory ones being product name, version and arch.
+
+> [...]
+> 3) The content
+> [...]
+>  * Do we need specific line for update since now distribution include
+>    everything
+
+If we happen to have mirrors that only mirror an update tree?
+
+>  * Do we keep this format ?
+>
+> Keeping this format is more simple, just changing the line specifiying
+> basis url in URPMI.
+> By changing the the format we can add features, make it clearer, etc...
+> But changing format to what ? XML ? YAML ? CSV ? something worst ? :)
+> Changes can done later.
+
+It's not an optimal format, but it looks simple and good enough. What
+would be needed to extend/change it?
+
+
+Romain
+