I would like people to know about something I've been working on, and to integrate it more into OpenOffice.org if people are interested. It is already on a P2P subpage. I'd like to be able to update that page so people can take advantage of it.
Metalink is a system which improves the download process by increasing availability and guaranteeing integrity. It can give your users a more reliable download by providing multiple links to the same file, which can be switched to if one server is down or fails during transmission. It can also make downloads faster by using multiple resources at once. Metalink lists mirrors with machine readable information on priority and location so their efficient use can be automated by download programs. It can list mirrors around the world, but will automatically default to mirrors closer to you and by priority. The checksum verification process, usually manual and arcane to most people, is automated with Metalink, so files are guaranteed to be an exact copy of the file you downloaded, free of errors. Metalinks can also contain publisher information, Operating System and architecture, language, file descriptions, mutliple files (to be added to a download queue) and so on. All this extra information allows download programs to do interesting things. It lets you have one download link for multiple Operating Systems and languages, and downloaders will get the correct version for their system. OpenOffice.org Metalink downloads (2.0.3): http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/magnet.html OpenOffice.org Metalink downloads (All): http://download.packages.ro/metalink/openoffice/ Metalink on the wiki: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Metalink More details..."Downloading bliss with Metalink": http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/01/1641247 Partial example Metalink: <file name="OOo_2.0.4_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz"> <os>Linux-x86</os> <size>126498407</size> <verification> <hash type="md5">736a546f2a2518e49c94f6c7995dc055</hash> </verification> <resources> <url type="bittorrent" preference="100"> http://borft.student.utwente.nl/openoffice/torrents/OOo_2.0.4_LinuxIntel_ins tall.tar.gz.torrent </url> <url type="ftp" location="au" preference="30"> ftp://mirror.pacific.net.au/OpenOffice/stable/2.0.4/OOo_2.0.4_LinuxIntel_ins tall.tar.gz </url> <url type="http" location="au" preference="30"> http://mirror.pacific.net.au/openoffice/stable/2.0.4/OOo_2.0.4_LinuxIntel_in stall.tar.gz </url> <url type="http" location="at" preference="30"> http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/office/openoffice/stable/2.0.4/OOo_2.0.4_LinuxIntel_i nstall.tar.gz </url> </resources> (( Anthony Bryan )) Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
