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Re: Metalink XML Download Description Format (draft-bryan-metalink-01)

• From: "Anthony Bryan" <anthonybryan@g...>
• To: discuss@a..., apps-review@i..., xml-dev@l..., ietf-http-wg@w...
• Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:26:40 -0500

On Mon, Sep 1, 2008 at 12:44 AM, Anthony Bryan <anthonybryan@g...> wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Here is the Internet Draft for Metalink, available at
> http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-bryan-metalink-01
> with interim revisions at
> http://metalinks.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/metalinks/internetdraft/ .
> We're looking for review and public comments.
>
> Metalink is currently supported by some 35 applications and used by
> projects such as OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, Ubuntu, cURL, and others.
>
>  Metalink is an XML-based document format that describes a file or
>  lists of files to be added to a download queue.  Lists are composed
>  of a number of files, each with an extensible set of attached
>  metadata.  For example, each file can have a description, checksum,
>  and list of URIs that it is available from.
>
>  The primary use case that Metalink addresses is the description of
>  downloadable content in a format so download agents can act
>  intelligently and recover from common errors with little or no user
>  interaction necessary.  These errors can include multiple servers
>  going down and data corrupted in transmission.

A new version of this draft is available at
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-bryan-metalink-04

It contains clarifications including a simpler "Securing Metalink
Documents" section.

As always, we welcome comments and suggestions.

We could also use help with
- Inclusion of digital signatures (other than PGP) of a file listed in
a metalink.

For instance, files are frequently signed with PGP (section 4.2.14),
and these can be included in a metalink so signature verification can
be automated:

<signature type="pgp">
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)

iEYEABECAAYFAkkcJgEACgkQeOEcayedXJFf6QCgy9pkyqqTtRZiZlz4GSLr1D13
avAAoMrPU7nomJysDbqo3uTDYcdbpz2T
=GBjI
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
</signature>

We don't describe other ways to sign a file and include it in the
metalink. If you are familiar with other ways, please help us add
these to the draft.

Thanks!
-- 
(( Anthony Bryan ... Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]
  )) Easier, More Reliable, Self Healing Downloads