setup RFC: Ditch homegrown http/ftp code and use a library?

Max Bowsher maxb@ukf.net
Sat Nov 13 10:20:00 GMT 2004


Christopher Faylor wrote:
> It would be nice if setup.exe supported the rsync protocol.

Lapo and Brian have already covered this, so I'll just summarise:

* No library available implementing the rsync protocol
  (librsync implements a *different* protocol !!!)

* Package file scarcely ever change whilst keeping the same name.
  Also, they are compressed, so a small change is likely to cause
  the entire contents to change anyway. Therefore, rsync would not help.

> Would it help if setup.exe was broken down into two different programs?
> One for accessing the network and another for manipulating packages?

Why would it? I think it would be unnecessary complexity. All we need to
do is pick an appropriately compact ftp/http lib (and it's beginning to
look like libcurl is appropriately compact) and use it.

Max.



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