Arch Linux

dav7

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 674

"Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

/home/.pacman-cache -> ls | head -n 1
total 7.1G
/home/.pacman-cache -> echo $(($(ls | wc -l)-1)) # effectively "output of `ls' minus the header" (the 'total 7.1G')
2320
/home/.pacman-cache -> _

I have quite a few (!) packages in my cache. I've never run `pacman -Scc'. "Why?!"

A while back, someone was on #archlinux and really needed an older version of a package. Unfortunately, I didn't have it (IIRC). So, I decided to never delete my cache so that one day I could start a kind of "old package repository" of older versions of packages, so people could downgrade or rollback a package if they wanted to, using the cache, even if they didn't have that package in their cache themselves.

Sure, so a mirror could simply move its packages to a different folder instead of deleting them (and any mirror maintainers are welcome to do this if you have the diskspace )... or users could contribute their packages to an unofficial central repository with a lot of diskspace and a fair amount of bandwidth, and users could use that to find old versions of stuff.

I unfortunately cannot fulfill the diskspace or bandwidth requirements, since I live in .au where the internet epically fails and ISPs impose a monthly cap on you. So, despite having 1Mbit/s upload, I only have 12GB of bandwidth each month.

If anyone has a nice connection with a few spare GBs (TBs? ) of space, I'm prepared to upload what packages I have to you in 3GB pieces over 4 months. Remember, something like this would be unofficial so it wouldn't need to be "permanent" (although that would be highly desirable).

I've no idea as to what I could do about package security, since old packages are deleted from the repo servers after they become outdated. All I can think of is "the more users post the same md5sum for a file, the higher chances it has integrity", but once again since this is unofficial this would be "as-is" anyway so it'd be an "at the user's risk" operation.

BUT, if the mirror maintainers simply moved the old packages to another folder instead of deleting them package integrity would be a non-issue pretty much.

So what are your opinions of this, guys?

-dav7

PS. If someone wants me to put a full `ls' of what packages I have (and their `md5sum's too, why not) online, just ask.

Last edited by dav7 (2008-05-08 02:07:17)

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Windows was made for looking at success from a distance through a wall of oversimplicity. Linux removes the wall, so you can just walk up to success and make it your own.
--
Reinventing the wheel is fun. You get to redefine pi.

dav7

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 674

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

*bump*

btw: LOL, I just noticed the "Last edited" date on the original post...

(It reads "Last edited by dav7 (2008-05-08 13:37:17)", if the forum is showing the time for you differently.)

Last edited by dav7 (2008-05-13 02:13:27)

---

Windows was made for looking at success from a distance through a wall of oversimplicity. Linux removes the wall, so you can just walk up to success and make it your own.
--
Reinventing the wheel is fun. You get to redefine pi.

schivmeister

Developer/TU

From: Singapore

Registered: 2007-05-17

Posts: 971

Website

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

You have been bookmarked. Next time I need a package, get ready for a beep.

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I need real, proper pen and paper for this.

dav7

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 674

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

schivmeister:

To everyone else... http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=367469

-dav7

Last edited by dav7 (2008-05-14 01:18:43)

---

Windows was made for looking at success from a distance through a wall of oversimplicity. Linux removes the wall, so you can just walk up to success and make it your own.
--
Reinventing the wheel is fun. You get to redefine pi.

mclabaut

Member

Registered: 2007-06-18

Posts: 41

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

Hello dav7...

I do not want to abuse, but if you ever get nvidia and nvidia-utils older than nvidia-173.14.05, I'd be eager to accept them :-)
(I don't know wat was the last version before this one).

-mathieu

Garns

Member

Registered: 2008-05-28

Posts: 239

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

I'm not dav7 but you might want to try:

nvidia-utils-169.12-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz

nvidia-169.12-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz

PhantmShado

Member

Registered: 2007-04-07

Posts: 20

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

any chance you got even older ones that would work on kernel 2.6.23?

sabooky

Member

Registered: 2006-11-02

Posts: 89

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

nvidia-1.0.9755-1.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-1.0.9755-5.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-100.14.11-1.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-100.14.11-4.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-100.14.19-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-100.14.19-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-100.14.19-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-100.14.19-6-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-169.09-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-169.12-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-169.12-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-169.12-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-173.14.05-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-96xx-96.43.05-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-96xx-utils-96.43.05-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-beyond-1.0.9755-1.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-utils-1.0.9755-1.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-utils-100.14.11-1.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-utils-100.14.19-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-utils-169.09-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-utils-169.12-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
nvidia-utils-173.14.05-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz

Pick one, and I'll send it to you.

Dav, If hd space is an issue for you, I've been working on an idea archive my repository. I've gotten it down from 8.7G to about ~3G using xdelta and 7z (3.7G using gzip), let me know if you're interested. I'm also one of those people that never does pacman -Scc .

PhantmShado, I'm willing to send you both nvidia files, however, you might be better off rebuilding the packages from abs, if you just need an older version of the driver svn might help you find and old pkgbuild.

Anywho, let me know if you need any of those files.

PhantmShado

Member

Registered: 2007-04-07

Posts: 20

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

I tried 169.09 that was in my cache and that seemed to be 2.6.24, so I'd like nvidia-utils-100.14.19-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz and nvidia-100.14.19-6-i686.pkg.tar.gz.  If you could email me with a transfer method that works best for you it would be greatly appreciated (if neccessary I can make a temp ftp account with write access).  Now, not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but is there any chance you have older ipw3945 or wlan-ng26 as well?  In either case, thanks very much!

PS.  I am nearly constantly in the irc channel #archlinux on freenode with the user name CaptainLJS if you happen to be a frequenter of the channel.

(Also, I certainly don't have the upstream bandwidth to be doing any hosting, but I do have enough for single transfers on request if they don't become too frequent and some spare space, so perhaps instead of making just one big repository we could make a site where people submit an ls of their cache directory and that then makes lists of who has what package.  A torrent tracker for old packages also seems like it could work, but that again takes a bit more bandwidth.)

Last edited by PhantmShado (2008-06-18 19:40:36)

sabooky

Member

Registered: 2006-11-02

Posts: 89

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

Sent you an email with the dl link. Don't have the wireless drivers.. again building them from source might not be a bad idea.

PhantmShado

Member

Registered: 2007-04-07

Posts: 20

Re: "Old package repository"? I have 7.1GB of cache here....

k, will probably do that considering on past distros that was the only way for me to get wlan-ng so it's not that scary an idea, thanks very much!