Arch Linux

theblazehen

Member

Registered: 2012-12-05

Posts: 32

New package management idea

What would you think of a package manager which uses bittorrent to transfer the package files ?

IsSuE

Member

Registered: 2006-04-29

Posts: 309

Re: New package management idea

Why?

headkase

Member

Registered: 2011-12-06

Posts: 1,983

Re: New package management idea

What problem that exists right now does it solve?  That is usually the test.  It takes a ton of effort to do a major infrastructure change and people are more willing to go with it if you can point to something right now that is an issue.

Xyne

Administrator/PM

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 6,965

Website

Re: New package management idea

P2P with package signing would make it possible for anyone to post binary packages. Download speeds would likely be amazing and the entire package distribution system would become much more robust. I think it would be a good idea but doing it right may be difficult.

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Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,488

Website

Re: New package management idea

It would probably be slower for the majority of packages - the time to download most packages would be less than the time to connect to peers.

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blackout23

Member

Registered: 2011-11-16

Posts: 781

Re: New package management idea

I'm pulling a steady 150 Mbit from my pacman mirror.

I also think that for most packages that are just 300kb it would be slower in total.
How big is the average package? Between 2-5 MB I'd guess.
So you'd never have enough seeders connected and reach any decent speeds before you're finished.

Also think about the networking problems people could have when they are behind routers and don't set it up right.

Last edited by blackout23 (2013-02-06 12:21:22)

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 12,583

Website

Re: New package management idea

Not to mention some ISPs (at least here in the UK) will throttle your download speeds if they detect any torrenting activity from your household (regardless of the legality of the activity), making any potential speed benefits moot.

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theblazehen

Member

Registered: 2012-12-05

Posts: 32

Re: New package management idea

thanks for the feedback

The reason why is to lessen the load on the mirrors. Also maybe only do it for the large packages.

digirium

Member

Registered: 2012-11-15

Posts: 51

Re: New package management idea

Technically probably not hard to support but what real benefit is there and who would make the choice to use torrents while direct download is available? Torrents will be slower than direct download and torrents are often detected and throttled by ISPs. I imagine this is not the first time this question has popped up either try a search.

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karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: New package management idea

We've had this discussion a number of times, please search before posting and at least link to these threads:
* https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=9399
* https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=68058
* https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=90970
* https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=91201
* https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=115731
* https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=125426
and summarize the pros and cons of different ideas that were already mentioned.

Last edited by karol (2013-02-06 16:07:55)