Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Arch Cache & cached archives

[Eric Wong]

Aaron Bentley <address@hidden> wrote:
> This is a description of the preliminary Arch Cache implementation with 
> notes on future directions.  Please consider it a draft; comments and 
> critiques are welcome.

<snip>

> Comparison with local mirrors
> ==============================
> - The user never downloads anything they don't need
> - Commits are possible
> - Never out of date
> - Disconnected operation is not yet supported

How about making the cache implementation compatible with a local
mirror?  I would like to be able to run [ar]browse (no options) as
quickly as I do with local mirrors, and I'd like to streamline it with
disconnected operation.

I briefly touched on this in <address@hidden>
and on IRC, but probably wasn't completely in expressing what I wanted
(or how *I* would implement this myself if I had the time :)


archive-mirror:

archive-mirror would have a --dirs option to create a directory skeleton
for the local archive.  All the directories that are present on the
remote archive are copied over, but remain empty (with the exception of
sub directories).

The directory skeleton would allow for quick [ar]browse information
about the mere existence of new revisions/versions/categories.  The
directories could be filled as needed, or if the archive-mirror command
is issued (it's also a (partial) mirror). 

LIMIT would also apply to the --dirs option.

Without the --dirs option, archive-mirror continues to work like it
normally does, and fill the cache/mirror according to LIMIT.


[ar]browse:

[ar]browse would have an option to choose to use _only_ cached
information, or access the remote archive as needed (--cached/--uncached?).
I'm undecided on which method is better as the default, but as long as
users have the option to choose, both the cache and local-mirror usages
will be supported.

The remote option would be somewhat equivalent of what I currently do
(tla archive-mirror && tla abrowse) with my local mirrors except I'll be
able to avoid downloading changesets and patch-logs I don't need.

If the user chooses to go remotely, then of course the cache will be
updated as well, but local (cache-only) browsing would be very helpful
for people who are tab-happy with shell completion :)

These would modify the cache/mirror in the same way:
        tla [ar]browse --uncached LIMIT  <~>  tla archive-mirror --dirs LIMIT


Other stuff:

A =meta-info/cache file may exist to indicate an archive is a cache, or the
line in =meta-info/mirror could be prefixed with 'cache:'

-- 
Eric Wong / normalperson

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