you're quite right. why are we using rsync anyway? in it's current state it's a waste of resources except for block-oriented files like cdimages. wouldn't it make more sense to use something like mirror or wget untill debdiff matures? are mirror admins required to use rsync?
another tought: would it be possible to impliment an alternative Packages.gz that works more like a database? ie, fixed length fields, etc? that would make rsync noticeably more effective. Tom Rothamel ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > I do happen to think that rsync is an inefficent solution to archive > mirroring, however, as it seems it would need to scan and checksum a > huge number of files every time it runs. Probably a better way would > be to have dinstall[1] generate a list of changes it makes to the > archive, and have people mirroring the archive use those lists to > figure out what needs to be downloaded. > > This would also have the benefit of making it easy to ensure that > archive mirrors are always in a consistent state. (ie, Packages.gz is > updated after new packages have been downloaded, but before old > packages are deleted.) > -- (jacob kuntz) [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED],underworld}.net (megabite systems) "think free speech, not free beer."