On Tue, 14 Feb 2017, NE NOC wrote: > Thank you for contacting us, I have upgraded ftpsync to your current, > I have also modified the sync mirror to debian.snt.utwente.nl. > However, due to our current directory layout it would be confusing to > put Debian directly to /, as we also provide other components as > software packages. > > Could you let us know the disadvantages if we keep it like we > currently have? (http://mirror.nforce.com/pub/linux/debian/). > > Please let us know, so I can take a look in what I can do :).
People (me including, often enough) assume *the* debian repository is available at http://<server>/debian. For instance, my sources.list file (where apt fetches packages from) has entries like | deb http://debian.sil.at/debian/ jessie main | #deb http://mirror.netcologne.de/debian/ jessie main | #deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ jessie main and if I need to add a new mirror, I'll just replace the hostname part. Now, technically, there's nothing wrong with deb http://mirror.nforce.com/pub/linux/debian/ jessie main, but I as a user am just not going to go through that trouble. As a data point, out of the 420 mirrors in our masterlist with debian available from public http, 371 of them use /debian/. Note that we don't necessarily require a "debian" link/entry at http://mirror.nforce.com/. A hidden Alias such that http://mirror.nforce.com/debian/ just works would be just as acceptable. Furthermore, having a consistent directory hierarchy across mirrors makes pointing services names such as ftp.nl.debian.org around if a machine goes down possible. If every mirror had their own hierarchy, that couldn't work. Either way, currently having the archive available at /debian is not a requirement. However, it does come up as a consideration regularly. Does this make sense? Cheers, -- | .''`. ** Debian ** Peter Palfrader | : :' : The universal https://www.palfrader.org/ | `. `' Operating System | `- https://www.debian.org/
