Mirror

Description

Two patches are provided for the Mirror script which was used for the old Sunsite archives. One fixes a bug with talking to WU-FTPD, while the other allows compressed archives to be uncompressed in the mirror.

The Sunsite archives are no longer available, so the code is provided here.

Patch 1

The first patch is extracted from the RedHat Linux RPM (mirror-2.9-7.src.rpm and mirror-2.9-7.noarch.rpm). This fixes a bug in talking to WU-FTPD. RedHat applies a number of other patches, but these are all to do with where the mirror script files are installed and from whence it finds the Perl executable. If you want to take the RedHat route, simply install the RPM and then apply the second patch.

Patch 2

The second patch allows remote archives that are compressed to be stored uncompressed locally. The normal Mirror program allows only the reverse (i.e. an uncompressed remote archive to be stored compressed locally). This is useful for things like the Protein Databank which is now stored on all the mirror sites only as compressed files.

Your mirror package file should simply contain the options:

compress_prog=/usr/bin/gunzip
compress_patt=\.(gz|Z)$
compress_excl=

or, if you don't have gunzip or need only to handle .Z files

compress_prog=/usr/bin/uncompress
compress_patt=\.Z$
compress_excl=

Download and Install

Patch 1

You do not need to apply this patch if you are using the RedHat RPM. If you are not using the RedHat RPM, proceed as follows:

  • Download the mirror-2.9.tar.gz package
  • Create a temporary directory in which to build mirror and unpack the gzipped tar file in that directory
  • Download the patch file and apply it using the patch program
  • Install the mirror script in the normal way.

Help

Don't forget, if you are using the original distribution rather than the RedHat RPM, you must set up your PERL5LIB environment variable to point to where the support files for mirror live!

Patch 2

After installing mirror - either from the RPM, or using the standard installation as described above, proceed as follows:

  • Ensure that the final mirror script is just called mirror
  • Enter the directory where the mirror script is stored
  • Download the patch file and apply it to the mirror script using the patch program.

Help

These patches are not sanctioned by Lee McLoughlin (author of mirror), but have been sent to him for inclusion in the next release. It comes with no warranty or guarantee!