Friendly warning on downloading RPMs :)

[Joel Sherrill]

Hi,

We have been watching the ftp logs this morning and we noticed
that more than one person has to be retrieving WAY more than
they need. We don't have infinite bandwidth and there is
WAY more on the ftp site than any one project could possibly
need or really want. :)

A lot of thought went into the organization of the RPMs to
avoid downloading things you would not need.  Just to make
sure it gets said once, here is a list of RPMs and what you
are likely NOT to need:

WILL NEED:

rtems-base-binutils-2.9.5.0.24-1.i386.rpm
rtems-base-gcc-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm
CPU-rtems-binutils-2.9.5.0.24-1.i386.rpm
CPU-rtems-gcc-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm

LIKELY TO NEED (some configurations use special gdbs like BDM)

rtems-base-gdb-4.18-3.i386.rpm
CPU-rtems-gdb-4.18-3.i386.rpm

UNLIKELY TO NEED:

CHILL:
  rtems-base-chill-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm
  CPU-rtems-chill-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm
 
Fortran:
  rtems-base-g77-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm
  CPU-rtems-g77-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm

GJC (Java Compiler) (experimental at best :):
  rtems-base-gcj-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm
  CPU-rtems-gcj-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm

Objective-C:
  CPU-rtems-objc-gcc2.95.2newlib1.8.2-6.i386.rpm

I did some quick checks and JUST on the sparc:
  Required:   8,452,948 bytes
  Likely:     2,552,851 bytes
  Not Likely: 7,943,419 bytes

That means that over 1/2 of what you download is not
needed to build RTEMS or most applications.

On top of that, we are seeing people retrieve the entire
set of RPMS for all targets.  I doubt anyone needs
every language for every target.  This means you
would have downloaded 175 MBYTES instead of 10-17Mbytes.

That is only for Linux.  There are also Cygwin RPMs
and will (hopefully) soon be Solaris ones as well.
They will be in multiple formats (RPM and .tgz for all)
and .deb for Linux.  That means that by pointing your
ftp client and clicking get all, you could easily
retrieve over 1 GBYTE of stuff you don't need.

Just a friendly warning. :)

-- 
Joel Sherrill, Ph.D.             Director of Research & Development
joel at OARcorp.com                 On-Line Applications Research
Ask me about RTEMS: a free RTOS  Huntsville AL 35805
   Support Available             (256) 722-9985