[Mageia-dev] Mirror layout

Fri Dec 10 11:22:09 CET 2010

Ernest N. Wilcox Jr. a écrit :
+>
+> Perhaps we should follow the approach other distributions seem to use.
+>
+> Official Mageia repos:
+>
+> Core: The core Mageia distribution (IMHO, should contain only a very minimal
+> instalation (No GUI or Productivity software).
+>
+> Desktop: GUI and Productivity software.
+>
+> Server: The various server software that would not normally be used on a
+> Desktop system.
+>
+> Community: Community suppoted GPL software
+>
+> Non-Official Mageis repos (optional):
+>
+> Non-GPL: Software that is not GPL Licensed
+Assume that this means software without ANY free licence.  (Such as bsd, 
+mpl, etc.)
+If drivers are included in these repos, and they are optional, many 
+systems will not function properly with the required repos.
+Only Fedora (of the distros mentioned below) has a policy to exclude 
+non-free software.  The others have a separate set of repos for non-free.
+
+> Extra: Software that can not be included in the above categories
+Is this for software that is legally constrained in some countries ?
+
+Where would development software (CLI and GUI) go ?
+
+This approach would be advantageous if mirrors were to carry only some 
+of the repo groups suggested.
+If official mirrors must carry all the official repos, it's not clear 
+the advantage of separating core/desktop/server repos, unless they are 
+to have different levels of support.
+For non-official mirrors, a server-only mirror would be a lot smaller.
+
+Using your definitions :
+Mandriva main = Core + Desktop + Server + many development packages
+Mandriva contrib = community
+Mandriva non-free = most Non-GPL (some of which is in main)
+Some legally contrained packages are excluded.  Supposedly in PLF.
+
+Debian uses the same names main, contrib, non-free, with explicit policy 
+close to Mandriva practices.
+In the same policy page, they say that patent-contrained software goes 
+into non-free, then further down they say that it can be excluded.
+http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-archive.html
+
+OpenSuse has supported oss (free) and non-oss (non-free); as well as 
+unsupported contrib.
+Corresponding to the repos of Mandriva.
+
+Ubuntu has 4 repo groups, essentially free and non-free, each divided 
+into supported and unsupported.
+They seem to permit contrained packages.
+
+Fedora package acceptance policy is explicitly dictated by RedHat.
+Includes only free packages (thus excluding redistributable drivers), 
+plus excludes legally constrained packages.
+Fedora is the only distro reviewed here which does not accept non-free 
+packages.
+However, given that RedHat sells their versions of Linux (with support), 
+one could question the motivation of the Fedora policy.
+
+> Since I am not knowlegable about running an FTP mirror, I do not know whether
+> it is best to put these listings under a single tree, or to split them into
+> two trees, but if we split them, perhaps we could approach PLF to host the
+> Non-officvial repos?
+
+Note that FTP would only be used for end-users downloading FROM mirrors.
+Mageia will require official mirrors to synchronize at regular intervals 
+using rsync + certain options.
+
+For mirrors which want to include everything, it is obviously simpler to 
+have a single tree, requiring a single simple rsync line.
+However a second simple rsync line isn't that complicated.
+
+For mirrors which wish to exclude the optional parts, the choice is 
+between one simple rsync line (if 2 trees), or a more complex line 
+adding an option to exclude each unwanted part of the of the source tree.
+(With the complication that an error in specifying this option could 
+cause problems with the mirroring.
+
+Using PLF for mirroring constrained packages sounds like a very good 
+idea. Their site says that they are open to hosting such packages for 
+all distros, as long as there are volonteers to support the packages.
+And since Mageia is (at least initially) compatible with Mandriva, their 
+page "easyurpmi" could be easily modified to set up mirror sources for 
+Mageia users.  (Call our version "easymageia" ?)
+
+Using PLF for contrained packages offers a plus for mirror sites willing 
+to host such packages.
+They need only mirror one PLF tree for all distros - be it Mandriva, 
+Unity, or Mageia.
+
+Interestingly, in a search for all packages containing "codec" or "mp" 
+(for mpeg) in the name, I found only 2 packages in PLF that weren't 
+already in Mandriva : one being quotations from the Simpsons, which the 
+package said was there for copyright reasons.
+All the other PLF packages I found in the above searches were in 
+Mandriva main.
+Many if not all of which were in PLF for patent reasons, according to 
+the package description.
+Which brings up a difference of PLF packages : the PLF description 
+usually ends with a line specifying why they are there.  (At least 
+packages destined for Mandriva users.)
+So if a user wants to avoid patent constrained packages, they are 
+identified as such in PLF - but not in Mandriva.
+
+> This is only a suggestion (and we may have already moved past this point), but
+> perhaps this will let us be more flexible to the end users (both DeskTop and
+> Server).
+
+For that point, end users could also use the install routines on the 
+distribution media, or the (rpm) package categories, to selectively 
+install Desktop and/or server packages.  Both of which could use 
+improvement.
+
+But the suggestion regarding PLF is interesting ...
+
+my 2 cents :)
+
+- André
+