[ALL] "current" links in download directories

[sebb <se...@gmail.com>]

Some components have "current" links in the top-level dist/ directories.

For example:

http://www.apache.org/dist/commons/digester/

has several such links.

These are presumably supposed to always point to the current latest release.
However, they are tricky to maintain (perhaps more so now we are
moving to svnpubsub).

Also they don't behave well. For example, if one downloads the link,
the file is named after the link, not the target, so it's not clear
exactly what has been downloaded. Also one cannot tell what file is
being referenced.

In fact, looking at the files uploaded to

https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/commons/digester/

it appears that the entries are copies of the files, not actually
links, so the links clearly are tricky to maintain. Also there are now
two copies of each of the files in SVN, and these will appear on each
3rd party mirror. Not ideal.

The links are expensive in maintenance and disk space.

I think they should be deleted unless there is a very good use-case
for keeping them.  This seems very unlikely, as no-one has complained
about the Commons components that don't have the links.

Thoughts?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@commons.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@commons.apache.org

Re: [ALL] "current" links in download directories

[Oliver Heger <ol...@oliver-heger.de>]

Am 04.03.2013 20:36, schrieb Gary Gregory:
> Delete them.

+1

IIRC, it was part of older release instructions to create such links. 
The instructions have been updated, but probably after the last Digester 
release.

Oliver

>
> Gary
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 2:34 PM, sebb <se...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Some components have "current" links in the top-level dist/ directories.
>>
>> For example:
>>
>> http://www.apache.org/dist/commons/digester/
>>
>> has several such links.
>>
>> These are presumably supposed to always point to the current latest
>> release.
>> However, they are tricky to maintain (perhaps more so now we are
>> moving to svnpubsub).
>>
>> Also they don't behave well. For example, if one downloads the link,
>> the file is named after the link, not the target, so it's not clear
>> exactly what has been downloaded. Also one cannot tell what file is
>> being referenced.
>>
>> In fact, looking at the files uploaded to
>>
>> https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/commons/digester/
>>
>> it appears that the entries are copies of the files, not actually
>> links, so the links clearly are tricky to maintain. Also there are now
>> two copies of each of the files in SVN, and these will appear on each
>> 3rd party mirror. Not ideal.
>>
>> The links are expensive in maintenance and disk space.
>>
>> I think they should be deleted unless there is a very good use-case
>> for keeping them.  This seems very unlikely, as no-one has complained
>> about the Commons components that don't have the links.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@commons.apache.org
>> For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@commons.apache.org
>>
>>
>
>


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@commons.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@commons.apache.org

Re: [ALL] "current" links in download directories

[Gary Gregory <ga...@gmail.com>]

Delete them.

Gary


On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 2:34 PM, sebb <se...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Some components have "current" links in the top-level dist/ directories.
>
> For example:
>
> http://www.apache.org/dist/commons/digester/
>
> has several such links.
>
> These are presumably supposed to always point to the current latest
> release.
> However, they are tricky to maintain (perhaps more so now we are
> moving to svnpubsub).
>
> Also they don't behave well. For example, if one downloads the link,
> the file is named after the link, not the target, so it's not clear
> exactly what has been downloaded. Also one cannot tell what file is
> being referenced.
>
> In fact, looking at the files uploaded to
>
> https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/commons/digester/
>
> it appears that the entries are copies of the files, not actually
> links, so the links clearly are tricky to maintain. Also there are now
> two copies of each of the files in SVN, and these will appear on each
> 3rd party mirror. Not ideal.
>
> The links are expensive in maintenance and disk space.
>
> I think they should be deleted unless there is a very good use-case
> for keeping them.  This seems very unlikely, as no-one has complained
> about the Commons components that don't have the links.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@commons.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@commons.apache.org
>
>


-- 
E-Mail: garydgregory@gmail.com | ggregory@apache.org
JUnit in Action, 2nd Ed: <http://goog_1249600977>http://bit.ly/ECvg0
Spring Batch in Action: <http://s.apache.org/HOq>http://bit.ly/bqpbCK
Blog: http://garygregory.wordpress.com
Home: http://garygregory.com/
Tweet! http://twitter.com/GaryGregory