[arch-releng] [PATCH 6/6] Let the mirrorlist in overlay generate dynamically

[Dan McGee]

On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 3:20 AM, Dieter Plaetinck<dieter at plaetinck.be> wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Jul 2009 18:47:17 -0500
> Dan McGee <dpmcgee at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 3:39 AM, Gerhard Brauer<gerbra at archlinux.de>
>> wrote:
>> > Removed mirrorlist file from overlay and modified Makefile to fetch
>> > the file dynamically on iso creation (Thanks, Dan!)
>>
>> What if we also had an option to fetch it at runtime of the ISO as
>> well?
>>
>> -Dan
>
> Do you mean that a user would boot up the liveCD/usb stick and a script
> would run that fetches a mirrorlist file from the interwebs?  (or
> updates the mirrorlist package automatically?).  Seems quite dirty to
> me, and won't work for networkless systems.

Why would you ever want to do this on a networkless system? That
doesn't make any sense at all. If you are doing a install from a full
core CD, you have no need for a network connection and a new
mirrorlist. However, for everyone doing a FTP install, networking is
kind of required.

So no- nothing to do with booting and fetching, but during the FTP
install process.

>  Besides why would we even
> need that? mirrorlist files don't become outdated that fast?

Not necessarily outdated, but missing mirrors. And you'd be surprised
at the mirror turnover we do have.

On another note related to Australia's mirrors being listed first-
there is a reason they are all commented out by default, so as not to
shoulder the burden on any one particular mirrror. I'd rather we find
a way to do this same sort of thing on the ISO as well. Any sort of
mirror selection procedure should work just fine, as long as the user
has to make an *explicit* choice, meaning they can't just use a
default (which 99% of people wouldn't change so that wouldn't be very
helpful).

-Dan