On Sunday 17 December 2006 15:51, Anthony Bryan wrote:
Hi again Rajko, ... From the site: Metalink is a simple XML (text) format. Download one and open it with a text editor, & most of it should be self explanatory. If you want to read the long, boring Metalink 3.0 specification, here you go:
http://www.metalinker.org/Metalink_3.0_Spec.odt http://www.metalinker.org/Metalink_3.0_Spec.pdf
Thanks for this. ...
Metalink is patent free, unlike BitTorrent. (BT is awesome and the best thing to happen to the net since the web).
The content of my website is under Creative Commons Attribution License. I believe this is the correct license for this type of thing, but I'm not very familiar w/ licenses. If someone knows of a more suitable one, please let me know.
Creative Commons Attribution License is for me good as any other that doesn't limit flow of ideas. ...
The partial file/segment checksums are also available and I am encouraging that as well - this will allow the automatic error correction. Some of the clients are adding this now. I guess it isn't as simple as the full file checksums. I don't know how far along aria2 is if at all, but if someone wanted to submit a patch that might not hurt. (Might want to contact the author or wait until the next release).
I'm not developer, but I can try to break it, if possible, and than complain to developers about implementation :-) ...
my comment about magnet clients. It can be that it was just old version or hacked copies that gave me a lot of problems on few occasions.
Ok, glad you understand that bad clients that may have used magnet links have no connection with metalink.
But, one particular magnet client I can't recommend as my friends will not check for version and source, for sure. What I actually do is to recommend some subscription service like Rhapsody, not expensive and works for me, so it may work for them too.
I actually do not disagree with idea and I stated that more than one time, but your presentation of metalinks is missing details. I would like that you give some technical background how it works and to clear legal status. Is it proprietary technology or opensource?
You are the first person to request details. I assume people really interested read the spec I mentioned above. Most people don't care about that much detail.
The specification is enough details. The most of the people are using OS that drains pockets with add this, add that, upgrade software, upgrade hardware, and still they don't want to try financially better option finding million reasons why is better what they have. ...
The client can only go with what you give it. If it's downloading from ftp/http, that's all its downloading from. There is just the automated checksum at the end, which will tell you if there were errors. I suppose the larger the file, the larger the chance of errors. If you're downloading an ISO over 2, 4 or 8 hrs, chances are probably higher that you will have an error in there somewhere. I'm sure there are lots of factors, but the bottom line is that for most people errors and rare but unavoidable with ftp/http. I've downloaded over a thousand files with metalinks, testing various stuff, and have only had one checksum error. I guess that's a testament to the quality of my connection. And thankfully it was a small couple hundred k file, not a 3G monster ISO.
The http and ftp protocols are using built in error correction of TCP/IP and that will fail sometimes, under circumstances that occur more often in congestions like one on a release day. ...
Once aria2 and other metalink clients support the partial file checksums, all this will be moot.
Someone has to make them available, software maker or guys that create metalinks.
I can't afford to pay people to work on this, so they will do it on their own time schedule. I'm sorry some people had problems, especially the file overwrite bug that someone ran into.
It happens with software.
Some other neat features which are still unsupported are inclusion of PGP signatures and some other stuff.
That is what is necessary to verify source of files. -- Regards, Rajko. http://en.opensuse.org/MiniSUSE http://en.opensuse.org/Portal --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org