Re: us.kernel.org mirroring inconsistency

Tigran Aivazian (tigran@aivazian.demon.co.uk)
Mon, 4 Jan 1999 10:07:31 +0000 (GMT)


No, that is not foolish. Look not at 2M files but at 10M files, which
is the size of the kernel. I think it is more foolish to keep the old
.gz files when it is so clear that .bz2 is much better. (And everyone
running Red Hat Linux will have bzip2(1) pre-installed anyway).

Regards,
Tigran A. Aivazian, http://www.aivazian.demon.co.uk/

On Sun, 3 Jan 1999, Matti Aarnio wrote:

> > I'm getting a bit disturbed by an inconsistency between the
> > kernel.org mirrors. For example, I have just connected to
> > katelyn.optilinkcomm.net, which apparently carries only bz2 files
> > and not gz files.
>
> That is foolish, in fact I think the BZ2 at this point
> is foolish thing to do as the only compression algorithm.
> In case of ftp.kernel.org archive:
> gz 2.4 GB
> bz2 2.1 GB
> That is, the 'bz2' version of compression is only about
> 1/8:th denser, than gzip.
>
> Way back when the BSD compress got into trouble with
> LZW patents, the rapid move to GNU-zip was well founded,
> but now such a thing is not really warranted.
>
> Over the time there have been available other free high-
> density compression algorithms (LHA, ARJ), which have not
> gotten very wide adoptation. Mainly perhaps because while
> they often produce denser results than GZIP, they always
> do it with way more heavy CPU usage. Also the expansion-
> algorithms of those seem to be heavier than gunzip.
>
> This thinking is basis on why ftp.funet.fi does not
> mirror BZ2 files if the same files are also available
> as GZ files.
>
> > It seems to defeat the purpose if kernel.org mirrors don't
> > actually carry the full contents of kernel.org, even accounting
> > for any lag in pulling down new files.
>
> Yeah, the http://www.kernel.org/mirrors/ COULD be further divided
> down per what the sites have announced to mirror, e.g.:
> ftp-gz.xx.kernel.org
> ftp-bz2.xx.kernel.org
> www-gz.xx.kernel.org
> www-bz2.xx.kernel.org
> if the site has both formats, then it should be aliased both ways.
>
> /Matti Aarnio <mea@nic.funet.fi> <matti.aarnio@sonera.fi>
>
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