Replacement of download.kde.org.

[Tom Albers]

Dear release-team, 

The sysadmin team is slowly planning to replace download.kde.org with a new version. We are currently testing its replacement. The summary is that nothing will change, but the question is when is a suitable time in the release planning to execute this switch? For those interested in the juicy details, read on...

Current situation
- You are creating a page like: http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.8.1.php
- That holds a link to http://download.kde.org/download.php?url=stable/4.8.1/ (step 1)
- This is a list of mirrors (step 2),
- When clicked on a mirror, you get to the specified folder (step 3).

A couple of problems: it's not user friendly, why should a user select a mirror? The detection of the nearest mirror is ... sub-optimal and it does not take into account if that mirror in reality has the files needed.

New situation.
- You are creating a page like: http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.8.1.php
- That holds a link to http://download.kde.org/download.php?url=stable/4.8.1/ (step 1)
- When clicked on a mirror, you get to the specified folder (step 2).

So, one step less. When clicked on a certain file in the listing from step 2, it will automatically select the best mirror (geographically closest, currently up and serving the file) and fetches it from that mirror.

Another page you are creating currently is: http://www.kde.org/info/4.8.1.php
On that page are links to: http://download.kde.org/stable/4.8.1/src/analitza-4.8.1.tar.xz
In the current situation, after a click you get to see the mirror selection page. In the new setup, this step is skipped and you will immediately download that file from the correct mirror.

Additionally, you could decide to start appending '.mirrorlist' to the urls, for example: http://download.kde.org/stable/4.8.1/src/analitza-4.8.1.tar.xz.mirrorlist This will lead to a page (after we switch) you can see here: http://mirrorbrain-test.kde.org/stable/4.8.1/src/analitza-4.8.1.tar.xz.mirrorlist

The advantage would be that this page provides metalinks and hashes. Metalinks are becoming more popular and allowes users to simultaneously download from multiple mirrors, verify hashes of the parts downloaded for those fragments, and we can also provide torrent links and stuff like that.

In summary: we hope to provide a drop in replacement for download.kde.org, which is way smarter with the displayed mirrors, increased user friendliness and increased functionality. What we need from you guys is a Saturday or Sunday in the next month or so when we are allowed to switch download.kde.org over to the new system. 

Best,

Tom Albers
KDE Sysadmin