[Yum] More on BitTorrent and YUM

[Michael Stenner]

First, when you start a new thread, it would be great if you could
start a thread :)  Please don't reply to an old message and simply
change the subject line.  Threaded mail clients will put your message
smack dab in the middle of some other thread.

On Wed, Jun 29, 2005 at 03:14:01PM -0400, Bill Cox wrote:
> Integrating BitTorrent into YUM seems like a good idea to me.  The
> distribution of files with BitTorrent is quite secure and robust.

Secure, robust and ideally suited to certain tasks.  I'm not yet
convinced this is one of those tasks.  I assure you, we're not
dismissing the idea out of hand.  We all had serious conversations
(in person, so no links to point you to) about this a while back.

> Instead of directly integrating BT into YUM, I'd propose creating a BT
> client/server that acts like FTP.  It'd simply allow users to publish
> directory trees with the server, and clients could download from the
> directory tree in BitTorrent manner, sharing file pieces among
> themselves.

Let me see if I understand you.  You're suggesting some intermediate
protocol?  Some FTPOBT (FTP over BitTorrent) that would look and feel
like FTP at both ends, have some translation layer, and do bittorrent
underneath?  FTP and BT are VERY different protocols and in practice
it's difficult to make one protocol look like another.

> I'm thinking that we could create scripts for mirroring popular RPM
> sites by having a low-bandwidth server that downloads them periodically,
> and making them available as torrents.  YUM would have to be modified to
> use the FTP-like utility to download packages.

I don't understand what you mean by "FTP-like utility" well enough to
comment on that.

> So, in summary, I suspect all we really need to integrate BT and YUM is
> build an FTP-like utility based on BT for pubishing file systems and
> downloading individual files from those file systems.
> 
> Should I work on such a beast?

If you want to pursue this, I'd encourage you to look into how
yum/urlgrabber currently do the network stuff.  For example, yum
currently relies heavily on the ability to extract JUST THE HEADERS
from an rpm on the server.  FTP/HTTP/File can do that, but BitTorrent
cannot.

					-Michael
-- 
  Michael D. Stenner                            mstenner at ece.arizona.edu
  ECE Department, the University of Arizona                 520-626-1619
  1230 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85721-0104                 ECE 524G