> Aggregating it into the package source is a better solution than having every 
> client do it.  The later isn’t going to scale well:  the client will take 
> longer and longer over time as more and more packages get registered to a 
> source.  Also takes longer as a function of total number of release versions 
> a package has because we are collecting metadata for each version.  Rather 
> not ask users to just get used to developing more patience over time.

I am not sure how strong the effect might be but this is definitely a
good point!

> I’d opt for a daily cron job to aggregate metadata into package sources.

For me this seems to be the easiest solution providing a maximum of
usability, too.

> It’s not a problem for the metadata to be out of sync for a day since only 
> the “search” command is going to be using the aggregated data.  Other 
> commands would have direct access to accurate metadata since they’ve already 
> cloned the package locally.

What about the "info" command? If a package is not installed it would be
nice if the command would obtain the latest meta data from the package's
repository as well.

> It would also be trivial to give users access to the aggregation tool if they 
> have a problem with potentially using day-old metadata in their searches and 
> are prepared to wait however long the aggregation process takes.
> 
> E.g. we add this command/flag: `bro-pkg refresh —aggregate-metadata`
> 
> Then the only difference between the daily aggregation process and a user is 
> that the daily process does a `git commit && git push` in the locally cloned 
> package source that bro-pkg is using internally.

That sounds great to me! This would be exactly the behavior I would
expect based on other package managers I have used so far.

>> Another question: Now that repositories only contain bro-pkg.index files
>> with links instead of submodules, how are deleted/unavailable packages
>> detected/removed?
> 
> At the moment, they’d have to be removed manually whenever someone notices or 
> reports it.
> 
> If we switch to automated metadata aggregation, removal of nonexistent 
> packages could naturally be a part of that.

Thanks for the clarification. Automatic removal might be a bit
aggressive but a warning would be very helpful I guess.

Best regards,
Jan
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