[SOLVED] Using symlinks in Arch repository

murukesh · 2014-02-26 05:33:40

I wonder why Arch repositories have packages all in pool/*, with symlinks to the other directories. What is the rationale behind such a set up? Is it the usual way for Linux distributions?
The reason I ask is that I am setting up a local mirror in my university. Since rsync is blocked in our campus network, I resorted to lftp. I noticed that mirroring was much faster via HTTP than by FTP over an HTTP proxy (lftp calls this HFTP, I think). But we can't detect symlinks via HTTP. Now I am in two minds: Should I switch to HTTP and ignore pool (and the symlinks) or should I stick to FTP and keep using the symlinks, but at much slower speeds compared to HTTP? If I could know the reason behind this structure, I would be able to make a good decision.

(I took permission from a Tier 2 mirror for initializing the local mirror, and then switched to a Tier 1 for syncing. This way I could setup the mirror without heavy utilization of the T1 mirror's bandwidth.)

Last edited by murukesh (2014-02-26 06:18:21)

Allan · 2014-02-26 05:52:07

The symlinks mean we can move packages between repositories (e.g. [testing] to [extra]) and only remove one symlink and add one symlink.

murukesh · 2014-02-26 06:17:48

Thanks for the quick reply, Allan. That is beautifully simple reason. I think I'll continue using FTP for the while, gather some stats to answer a few questions. (Is downloading a file again preferable to long sync times? Will I ever be able to convince the powers that be to open the rsync ports? Will this be the year of Linux on the Desktop? ...)

progandy · 2014-02-26 06:35:18

I guess you should be able to get permission to setup an ssh or rsync connection between two known ip addresses (your mirror ip and the Tier1 ip), so I'd try to get that.
There are enough mirrors which support rsync, e.g. leaseweb, tuxdroid, bytemark, many university mirrors, ...
I believe that a Tier2 mirror with up two half an hour sync delay is perfectly fine.

Last edited by progandy (2014-02-26 06:44:33)

murukesh · 2014-02-26 06:54:03

progandy wrote:

I guess you should be able to get permission to setup an ssh or rsync connection between two known ip addresses (your mirror ip and the Tier1 ip), so I'd try to get that.
There are enough mirrors which support rsync, e.g. leaseweb, tuxdroid, bytemark, many university mirrors, ...
I believe that a Tier2 mirror with up two half an hour sync delay is perfectly fine.

Hmmm. The thing is, my university hosts official mirrors for a few distros, but previous efforts to have one for Arch haven't gained much traction. I figured setting up a local mirror on my department's servers would be easier than getting the powers that be (PTB) to host an Arch mirror. The way I see it, if the local mirror gets noticeable usage within the campus, then I'd be able to convince the PTB to host an official mirror (and since they control the network, they can set it up however they want). Perhaps it would be easier to just get rsync/ssh open for the server's IP than get PTB to host a mirror. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try that.

EDIT:
May I know why you struck out those lines? I am syncing twice a day, so half an hour's sync delay is perfectly fine by me, and I could perhaps get the friendly T2 mirror I originally used to enable rsync.

Last edited by murukesh (2014-02-26 06:55:32)

progandy · 2014-02-26 08:18:54

murukesh wrote:

EDIT:
May I know why you struck out those lines? I am syncing twice a day, so half an hour's sync delay is perfectly fine by me, and I could perhaps get the friendly T2 mirror I originally used to enable rsync.

I reread your post and saw that you are unable to create an rsync connection, so I struck out my post and created a new answer. I did not completely delete it because I wasn't totally sure.

Since rsync is blocked in our campus network,

Edit: I see now, that those lines go well with my new answer, too.

Last edited by progandy (2014-02-26 08:20:20)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-02-26 05:33:40

[SOLVED] Using symlinks in Arch repository

#2 2014-02-26 05:52:07

Re: [SOLVED] Using symlinks in Arch repository

#3 2014-02-26 06:17:48

Re: [SOLVED] Using symlinks in Arch repository

#4 2014-02-26 06:35:18

Re: [SOLVED] Using symlinks in Arch repository

#5 2014-02-26 06:54:03

Re: [SOLVED] Using symlinks in Arch repository

#6 2014-02-26 08:18:54

Re: [SOLVED] Using symlinks in Arch repository

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