This was sent to the Users list. It's probably more appropriate for this list. Begin forwarded message:
From: Ross David Turk <rdt@ostg.com> Date: January 5, 2007 3:58:05 PM EST To: macports-users@lists.macosforge.org Subject: SourceForge in mirror_sites.tcl
Hey folks!
I noticed that you guys are fetching SourceForge files from the mirrors directly, and did a little grepping. I'm not a macports/ darwinports expert (or even a heavy user), but I think that it's set in mirror_sites.tcl:
set portfetch::mirror_sites::sites(sourceforge) { http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://surfnet.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://belnet.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://ovh.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://mesh.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://ufpr.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/ http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/ }
In the old days, until about a month ago, users accessing a file like http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gaim/gaim-1.5.0.exe would be sent to a mirror selection page. Recently, we replaced that page with a more intelligent download redirector.
I would love to see you change the snippet above to:
set portfetch::mirror_sites::sites(sourceforge) { http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ }
Doing this should provide these benefits:
1) You won't have to manage the mirror list as mirrors are added or removed. 2) You can ensure that the mirror you're sent to has the file you're looking for. Not all mirrors have all files. 3) Your users will probably get a faster download due to the geolocation. 4) SourceForge projects will get fair download statistics - going to the mirror directly bypasses our statistics hooks, so your downloads haven't been counting towards their SourceForge.net project activity rating.
The risk is, of course, that if the SF.net website goes down, so will your ability to get these files. Perhaps you could list http://downloads.sourceforge.net first and keep a few other ones in there as a backup in case we're down? Does port try to fetch from the mirrors using the listed order?
Let me know if you have any questions.. :)
Thanks! Ross
-- Ross David Turk <rdt@sf.net> SourceForge.net Community Manager
-- Kevin Ballard http://kevin.sb.org eridius@macports.org http://www.tildesoft.com