Posts by twanj

1) Message boards : Web interfaces : A new way to download BOINC (Mirrors & p2p) (Message 5677)
Posted 21 Sep 2006 by twanj
Post:
Here's a good explanation of Metalink:

'Metalinks makes complex download pages obsolete by replacing long lists of download mirrors and BitTorrent trackers with a single .metalink file. As you might have already guessed, a .metalink file is a file that tells a download manager all the different ways it can download a file. The file itself takes the form of an open XML standard that can list an unlimited number of HTTP and FTP sources as well as BitTorrent trackers and ed2k and magnet links.'
(http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/08/28/metalinks-integrated-bittorrent-http-and-ftp-downloads/)

I've updated the metalinks for BOINC & Blender:
http://www.metalinker.org/samples/boinc_5.4.11_windows_intelx86.exe.metalink
http://www.metalinker.org/samples/blender-2.42a-windows.metalink

There are now four metalink clients on Windows/Unix/Mac: GetRight, Speed Download, aria2, & wxDownload Fast. (More on the way, here's a list: http://www.metalinker.org/implementation.html )

OpenOffice.org and many Linux/BSD distributions use it to distribute their ISOs, & kernel.org will be using it soon.
2) Message boards : Web interfaces : A new way to download BOINC (Mirrors & p2p) (Message 4627)
Posted 2 Jun 2006 by twanj
Post:
I noticed this on the download page:

'We are now using mirrored download servers at partner institutions. Your download will come from a randomly-chosen server. Thanks to these partners for their help.

If you have trouble downloading a file, please reload this page in your browser and try again. This will link to a different download mirror and may fix the problem.'

You could simplify this by using a .metalink for downloads. This is a simple XML file that lists Mirror (FTP/HTTP) & p2p locations for a file. There are also checksums, so a file's integrity can be verified once the download is complete.

Currently, there is only a Windows client, GetRight 6, but clients for other OSes are on the way.

Here's the .metalink for BOINC:

http://www.metalinker.org/samples/boinc_5.4.9_windows_intelx86.exe.metalink

Here's what it looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<metalink version="3.0" generator="Metalink Generator v1.00.0034" xmlns="http://www.metalinker.org/">
<publisher>
<name>Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing</name>
<url>http://boinc.berkeley.edu</url>
</publisher>
<description>BOINC lets you donate computing power to scientific research projects.</description>
<files>
<file name="boinc_5.4.9_windows_intelx86.exe">
<version>5.4.9</version>
<language>en-US</language>
<os>Windows-x86</os>
<verification>
<hash type="md5">09780d4f5d2eb54fc61b665bc5f1eb60</hash>
</verification>
<resources>
<url type="http" location="us" preference="100">http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/boinc_5.4.9_windows_intelx86.exe</url>
<url type="http" location="de" preference="100">http://einstein.aei.mpg.de/download/boinc/dl/boinc_5.4.9_windows_intelx86.exe</url>
<url type="http" location="us" preference="100">http://einstein.aset.psu.edu/download/boinc/dl/boinc_5.4.9_windows_intelx86.exe</url>
<url type="http" location="uk" preference="100">http://einstein.astro.gla.ac.uk/download/boinc/dl/boinc_5.4.9_windows_intelx86.exe</url>
<url type="http" location="us" preference="100">http://morel.mit.edu/download/boinc/dl/boinc_5.4.9_windows_intelx86.exe</url>
</resources>
</file>
</files>
</metalink>



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