2010/11/27 Andrey Borzenkov <arvidj...@gmail.com>: > On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 11:29 PM, Thomas Backlund <t...@iki.fi> wrote: >> >> The idea of this layout with some of the separate sections (codecs, >> firmware, games, non-free, debug_*) gives a mirror maintainer in a country >> (or company) the option to exclude the parts they legally (or by company >> policy) can not mirror. >> > > I wonder how "urpmi.addmedia --distrib > ftp://server/with/omitted/sections" should be interpreted then. > > Also mirror list should be indicating which sections are present; is > it supported right now?
And that will make the "$MIRRORLIST" approach problematic. Say I am living in a country which has no patent restrictions but no mirror either. Then the addmedia function will search a mirror in my neighborhood and selects the next mirror which may be such a mirror where the maintainer excluded the parts with patented software. Say I am a new user who does not know about the option to manually select a mirror and who does not know that such mirrors with missing branches do exist. I must come to the conclusion that Mageia does not distribute any patented software at all. This can only be avoided on user level by asking the user first if he wants patented software or not (including a text which explains the problem). Then if he wants to have patented software he could be connected to a mirror with the "patented software flag", if not he will be connected with a mirror which does not have the "patented software flag". The other option may be that we do not allow mirrors without the "patented" branch in the official mirrorlist. This would probably mean no official mirrors in those countries with "patent problems" but people there can still use other "off shore" mirrors. -- wobo