Friendly warning on downloading RPMs :)

[Joel Sherrill]

Stephan Wilms wrote:
> 
> Hi Joel,
> 
> > 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.
> 
> Interesting problem you have there. This shows you how eager people are
> to get as much of RTEMS as possible :-)
> 
> > 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
> 
> Hmmm, how about making it easier (and more obvious) for the users: put
> the "required" and "likely" stuff into 1 (ONE) package called "BASIC"
> and all the other stuff into 1 (ONE) additional package called
> something like "OPTIONAL". Add clear hints as to which host and targte
> type the packages address. Nowadays those package sizes of around 10 MB
> shouldn't be too big for professionals who need the stuff for their
> work.

The next round of tool binaries will be divided into subcategories
based on something like shared and per cpu.  I doubt few people
need tools for more than one or two targets.  

On top of that, there will be some distinction to discourage 
people from grabbing the secondary language RPMs by default.

The distinction I drew between Required and Likely is not that
important since most people will want gdb.  Over time, the gdb
RPMs will support the necessary configurations.  The distinction
that is important is on the secondary language RPMs.  They
double the download.

I agree with your next statement.  

> Personally I find the long lists of RPM files in the FTP directories
> very confusing. The (IMHO) *best* solution would be direct download
> links on the WEB site with good explanations right above. That should
> make things a lot clearer than simply have to wade through huge trees
> on the FTP site. I am thinking along the lines of texts like this (just
> to illustrate my point):
> 
>    The BASIC package of prebuilt RTEMS developement
>     tools for a Linux host and an i386 target:
>        <<detailed list of package contents>>
>        <<Linux installation instructions>>
>        <<download the package (12MB)>>
> 
>     The OPTIONAL package of prebuilt RTEMS developement
>     tools for a Linux host and an i386 target (please
>     check whether you really need this):
>        <<detailed list of package contents>>
>        <<download the package (12MB)>>
> 
> Where the "<< ... >>" indicate links to descriptive texts or direct
> downloads respectively. Something like that anyway. Right above the
> list or table of downloads would be a good place for describing the
> general concept of prebuilt binaries. Other concepts might be to have
> one basic page for the general concept ond one subpage per supported
> host system, etc.

This is what really needs to be there but will take a bit more time
to develop.

> > That means that over 1/2 of what you download is not
> > needed to build RTEMS or most applications.
> 
> Well, I have not (yet) been hit by this problem because I am still a
> fan of actually building the tools myself from the source. Especially
> since this works very well with 4.5.0

This I am glad to hear.  But building the tools can be a painful
and time-consuming process that discourages new users from 
using RTEMS.  

> > 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.
> 
> WOW ! Some people must have really fast and cheap internet access and a
> lot of patience. Maybe someone is trying to mirror you ?

Possible. :)

> Greetings,
> 
> --
> Stephan Wilms (stephan.wilms at cwa.de)
> CWA-GmbH, Aachen, Germany

-- 
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
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