SourceForge in mirror_sites.tcl

[Ross David Turk]

Hey folks!

I noticed that you guys are fetching SourceForge files from the  
mirrors directly, and did a little grepping.  I'm not a macports/ 
darwinports expert (or even a heavy user), but I think that it's set  
in mirror_sites.tcl:

set portfetch::mirror_sites::sites(sourceforge) {
     http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://surfnet.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://belnet.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://ovh.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://mesh.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://ufpr.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/
     http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/
}

In the old days, until about a month ago, users accessing a file like  
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gaim/gaim-1.5.0.exe would be sent  
to a mirror selection page.  Recently, we replaced that page with a  
more intelligent download redirector.

I would love to see you change the snippet above to:

set portfetch::mirror_sites::sites(sourceforge) {
     http://downloads.sourceforge.net/
}

Doing this should provide these benefits:

1) You won't have to manage the mirror list as mirrors are added or  
removed.
2) You can ensure that the mirror you're sent to has the file you're  
looking for.  Not all mirrors have all files.
3) Your users will probably get a faster download due to the  
geolocation.
4) SourceForge projects will get fair download statistics - going to  
the mirror directly bypasses our statistics hooks, so your downloads  
haven't been counting towards their SourceForge.net project activity  
rating.

The risk is, of course, that if the SF.net website goes down, so will  
your ability to get these files.  Perhaps you could list http:// 
downloads.sourceforge.net first and keep a few other ones in there as  
a backup in case we're down?  Does port try to fetch from the mirrors  
using the listed order?

Let me know if you have any questions.. :)

Thanks!
Ross

--
Ross David Turk <rdt at sf.net>
SourceForge.net Community Manager


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