[arch-dev-public] [RFC] archive.archlinux.org

[Sven-Hendrik Haase]

I like that project. However, why would we need a new server? Can't we use
the space and bandwidth of an existing host? I'm not too knowledgeable
about our current servers so maybe Florian could shed some light on that.

The script seems fairly manageable and you already provide systemd stuff
and everything. +1 from me if we don't need a new server.

On Sat, Oct 17, 2015 at 9:02 PM, Sébastien Luttringer <seblu at archlinux.org>
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> More than one year ago[1] we started to discuss making the Arch
> Rollback Machine more official. There were pros and cons and I would
> give us the opportunity to move forward.
>
> ARM was renamed to Archlinux Archive, following suggestions made
> earlier. The ALA acronym is now preferred to avoid confusion with the
> ARM architecture. AUR part was removed, the last/month/week links are
> optional.
>
> The Archive project is basically a daily snapshot of our official
> repositories and ISOs. A description of it if available on our Wiki[2].
> Of course this could be improved by anyone who want to help.
>
> Today, this is used for hunting bugs (testing previous working package,
>  bisecting at the system scale), rescue systems when broken package are
> pushed. Tomorrow, this may provide a ground for reproductible builds.
>
> The project code base[3] is really simple (it's one bash script) and
> running a server don't need much maintenance. I was designed keeping
> that in mind. I got few donations over the year to provide this service
> and one request to create a mirror.
>
> So far, the disk space used is:
> # du -hcs iso packages repos/*
> 60G     iso
> 2,0G    packages
> 110G    repos/2013
> 254G    repos/2014
> 204G    repos/2015
>
> Some concerns raised about the place of agetpkg[4] in our official
> repository so I deleted it. agetpkg is a command line tool used to
> easily download previous versions of packages for debugging purpose.
> For example, with the new gnome 3.8 release, the VFS access to smb
> shares was broken. It was really fast and easy to downgrade all gvfs
> package to a previous version to confirm (e.g: agetpkg -i gvfs 1.26.0
> 3)
>
> Let me share the questions I got about the project so far and my
> answers.
>
> Q: We will support old packages?
> A: No. Nothing change. We already have to check when people report bugs
> they upgraded their system to the last version.
>
> Q: We will support partial upgrade?
> A: No.
>
> Q: User will become lazy and stop report bugs
> A: I don't believe that providing more tools to test will make them
> stop reporting. The local cache already stop them to report.
>
> Q: This will add more unwanted works?
> A: ARM exists for years. Users already use AUR packages, unofficial
> repositories and non-stock kernels and this didn't change our way of
> rejecting incorrect requests.
>
> Q: This will lighten your sysadmin time. That's why you want to move it
> as an Archlinux project.
> A: Not at all. Firstly because I still plan to maintain the Archive for
> the Arch project. Moreover, I started another Archive server for my
> company.
>
> Q: If you quit the Archlinux project, we will have to maintain it.
> A: Even though I'm not leaving, as soon as nobody want to maintain a
> service in arch, stopping it is easier than starting it.
>
> The plan I propose for now:
> - Add a new server[5][6] to our farm (fsociety.archlinux.org?).
> - Move archivetools and agetpkg git repositories into project.al.org
> - Add archive.al.org
> - Adding agetpkg back to our repositories
> - News announcement. With all the warnings about our policy about
> downgrades.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> [1] https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-dev-public/2014-March/02
> 6011.html
> [2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux_Archive
> [3] https://github.com/seblu/archivetools
> [4] https://github.com/seblu/agetpkg
> [5] http://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server/dedibox-md
> [6] http://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server/dedibox-classic
>
> --
> Sébastien "Seblu" Luttringer
> https://seblu.net | Twitter: @seblu42
> GPG: 0x2072D77A
>