new idea for lunar - auto selecting download mirror using country codes

[Auke Kok]

Zbigniew £uszpiñski wrote:

>>The only change I propose is to try local mirrors first and next use the rest.
>>    
>>

This could be written in a plugin I suppose. The problem with this
reasoning is that the mirrors need to be known first (for all modules)
and then tested (which one is closer, or faster, or something else).

This is a programming nightmare, without a good solution possible.
Simplicity wins easily, and that's how the system works now.

>They only one problem with mirrors I had was slow update time. I had to wait 1 
>day to see update on mirror. I think most people do not do lunar update 
>everyday. Module update also takes some time. So this problem is almost non 
>existent.
>
>  
>

not true: even if you update once a month, most likely there will be a
few applications that were just updated the day before you updated.
Also, some mirrors take days (even weeks) to sync with the master mirror.


>Yes. But it could start with local or neighbour one. I see many German urls in 
>modules, but US urls are placed first so do not have possibility to use those 
>closer and faster urls. There is nothing wrong with US servers but they are 
>far away.
>  
>
that's because the MAIN mirror site is in the US most of the time. It
also completely doesn't matter how "far" away a mirror is. What does
matter is the bandwidth between you and the server, which is why we pick
the servers according to reliability and speed (and reliability is more
important).

Remember that a polish mirror from the US will be slower than a US
mirror from Poland.

>>If you want to *add* more mirrors yourself just create 
>>/etc/lunar/mirrors/CUSTOM/ and put more mirrors in there, or even
>>    
>>
>
>Could you drop me example file via e-mail. I couldn't find any SDK on lunar 
>website.
>  
>

that was a typo, it should read:

"If you want to *add* more mirrors yourself just create /etc/lunar/mirrors/CUSTOM and put more mirrors in there"

in the /etc/lunar/mirrors/ directory are already 7 example files. There is no SDK as well.


>>you can even force every download 
>>to be attempted from one specific mirror first by setting FRESORT_URL,
>>the analogue last resort mirror location can be put in LRESORT_URL. Make
>>sure you turn on EXHAUSTIVE too.
>>    
>>
>This is not good idea. There is no mirror which mirrors everything.
>  
>
yup, except for the two caches we maintain at
tx-us.lunar-linux.org/lunar/cache/ and
gbg-se.lunar-linux.org/lunar/cache/. Those mirror everything.

>  
>
>>BTW that mirror you gave me says '530 too many users'... not really useful
>>    
>>
>
>... for people connecting outside Poland. This is local mirror, foreigners 
>have ultra low priority. They can connect when almost nobody uses it. But 
>this never happen. Thanks to such traffic filtration server is very fast.
>  
>
unfortunately we care more about "everyone" then "polish users only". We
also think that the mirrors we provide should work for everyone ...

>BTW How to setup lunar to use .de mirror. I set .de mirror in LRESORT but it 
>still lunar update downloads moonbase from main site.
>  
>

moonbases are downloaded from a set of hard-coded URL's described in
/etc/lunar/config. You can override these URLS by setting MOONBASE_URL
to another URL like this:

lunar set MOONBASE_URL[0] http://gbg-se.lunar-linux.org/lunar/

*** THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED ***

The reason it was written like this is to make sure you are getting the
latest moonbase from the proper server. If you fail to change servers
due to server name changes you might not get any updates. We
continuously monitor these servers and you will get the best
(up-to-date) possible mirrors by using the default.

BTW the main server is located in the Netherlands, and _not_ in the USA.
If that is still to far away from you in Poland then I give up.

sofar