[Mageia-dev] Mirror layout, round two

Maarten Vanraes maarten.vanraes at gmail.com
Sat Nov 27 00:02:54 CET 2010


Op vrijdag 26 november 2010 22:43:31 schreef Renaud MICHEL:
> On vendredi 26 novembre 2010 at 21:29, Thomas Backlund wrote :
> > Then we come to the "problematic" part:
> > ------
> > x86_64
> > 
> >         media
> >         
> >               codecs (disabled by default)
> >               core (old main+contrib)
> >               
> >                    backports (disabled by default)
> >                    backports_testing (disabled by default)
> >                    release
> >                    testing (disabled by default)
> >                    updates
> >               
> >               extra (unmaintained, disabled by default)
> >               firmware (disabled by default)
> >               games (disabled by default)
> >               non-free (disabled by default)
> >               /debug_*/ (disabled by default)
> > 
> > -----
> > 
> > The idea of this layout with some of the separate sections (codecs,
> > firmware, games, non-free, debug_*) gives a mirror maintainer in a
> > country (or company) the option to exclude the parts they legally (or by
> > company policy) can not mirror.
> > 
> > The "core" should be only maintained free/libre stuff so it's easy to
> > build a free/libre iso
> > 
> > "extra" is for those packages that no-one really maintain, but is still
> > used by someone
> > 
> > "games" are now a separate repo since it can grow fast with a lot of
> > game data.
> 
> I think it is a good layout, but, are updates/backports(testing) limited to
> core?
> 
> As you mentioned, extra has no reason to have updates or backports, because
> if someone did bother to make updates, then the package doesn't belong in
> extra.
> 
> For games it would surely be appreciated to have new versions, so maybe a
> only a games/updates media which could also be used as a backport media (as
> games are not critical).
> 
> For non-free we would probably want also updates and backports, like in
> current mandriva.
> 
> Now for firmware and codecs I don't know, are there updates for firmwares?
> Maybe they should be in sync with kernel updates (or external modules)?
> As for codecs, will it contain anything that could be covered by patents,
> like PLF for mandriva?
> Does that mean we will still have a stripped down mplayer/xine in core and
> a full version in codecs?
> But if it is only disabled and you only need to activate it in the control
> center to have full featured multimedia programs, it is no big deal, and if
> it makes life easier for people  whose countries have restrictive law then
> we should go for it.
> 
> We should probably have a clear rule to decide what cannot go in core and
> should in non-free (that on is pretty clear already) codecs or firmware.
> 
> I hope we will soon get to the point where we will actually put packages in
> those repositories :-)

A) i see no reason for codecs and firmware to be separate. However, i do 
understand that some people would not want to install firmware, but i think we 
should do this in another way, (like installing a meta package that enforces 
some limits.)
codecs seem odd to be separate, if they have patented problems they should go 
in non_free, if no problem, they can go in core.

B) if they are separate, they would need updates, backports, testing, ... (i 
expect non_free does too?)

C) if they are separate, they cannot be disabled by default, some stuff is 
needed for stuff to work.

D) i have questions about noarch packages, will they be installed on both 
trees? and if we have more archs later on, more and more? this seems a waste; 
except if we could hardlink them somehow. if not, we should just put them 
somewhere separate.

E) i understand games to be separate, but disabled by default?, i'm not sure i 
agree with that. (we need to remember our target audience; stuff needs to work 
out-of the box)

F) what is backports_testing? why can't that just be testing?


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