Improving software update downloads with metalink?

[Anthony Bryan]

I've made a metalink for the software downloads on
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_Notes/8.2.0 (& filed a ticket
http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/8866 ):
http://www.metalinker.org/samples/OLPC_8.2.0_gg-767-4.img.metalink

A metalink is an XML file that lists checksums, mirrors, signatures, &
other useful info for downloads. (I didn't see a list of mirrors so
this metalink contains only one URL, but metalink downloaders will
fallback to other mirrors if one fails, and also use checksums to
recover from errors). This type of error recovery would possibly be
good for places where XO is used that have flaky internet connections.

A number of Linux distributions use metalink for ISO downloads
(Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu, & others), along with OpenOffice.org.

A good amount of metalink software is in Python, which could be
convenient, if you wanted to integrate it. There are about 40 apps
that support metalink, from Firefox extensions, P2P clients, and other
download apps.

Metalink Checker checks mirrors and downloads files. Metalink Library
(CLI) / Editor (GUI) create metalinks, as does Fedora's MirrorManager.
Mandriva uses metalinks for software updates (urpmi) and I believe

http://metalinks.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/metalinks/checker/checker.py

http://code.google.com/p/metalink-library/

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!
-- 
(( Anthony Bryan ... Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]
  )) Easier, More Reliable, Self Healing Downloads