Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 18:02:08 -0600 (CST) From: Alec Kloss <alec@d2si.com> To: dean@av8.com (Dean Anderson) Cc: pantzer@ludd.luth.se, dean@oec.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FTP site Message-ID: <199702080002.SAA07976@d2si.com> In-Reply-To: <v02130501af21375e048c@[198.3.138.121]> from Dean Anderson at "Feb 7, 97 04:09:55 pm"
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Dean Anderson is responsible for: > At 9:31 PM 2/7/97, Mattias Pantzare wrote: > >> Is it too much to ask to have a normal ftp site, with the source > >>distributions > >> organized by category, with the original source tar file and a patch > >>file for BSD? > > > >Normal?? It is a very normal file tree. (You ar refering to that, not the > >site) > > Snip > >>to "improve" > >> things by breaking them. > > > >What format? What FTP sites? I think that it is a very good file tree. > > Log on to an HPUX system, or any non freebsd system. Use ftp. Use the web > site as a guide to find the "locations" of packages. Compare with > ftp.uu.net, or any of dozens of other large ftp sites. > > Imagine that one has a VMS machine without make, but can create a tape or > uucp a file that is readable on his machine at home. So ftpping a makefile > and running "make get-dist" is completely unacceptable. > > The problem is that your site is for use only by the freebsd ports program, > and then very badly at that. And nowhere does it say that. > > When you say you have msql.tar.gz, it appears that you actually have msql, > which you don't have anywhere on your ftp site. So web searches looking > for msql list your site as having msql.tar.gz. They are led thinking that > your site is much closer than the australia site, and spend half hour > trying to figure out where you might have squirreled away the msql > distribution, only to discover to there great frustration that you were > lying about having it in the first place. > > You don't have an ftp site. Its a ports site that uses ftp as a data transport. > > --Dean Snip Well, what bit you this morning? I agree that the FreeBSD ftp site departs from traditional ftp sites in a few ways. However, this does not make it "broken", just different. Last time I checked, there were no laws or even rules for websites, just tradition. Just because I file looks like it contains something that you want, does not mean that it IS something you want. If msql.tar.gz is a port, not a package, didn't the fact that it was about 50K tip you off that it probably wasn't the source for a whole RDBMS? I guess they should have named msql.tar.gz something like msql.tar.gz-port-only-not-complete-dont-use-unless-you-have-freebsd-installed Excellent! I would say that anything from /pub/FreeBSD down is most likely for FreeBSD users, don't you. I'm surprised you haven't downloaded a file like: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/unix/elm23-2.zip for a HPUX machine trying to get at elm.
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