Using Debtorrent in frequently updated system

[Cameron Dale]

On 1/19/08, Voker57 <voker57 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I meant to ask if some peer running debtorrent has some packages that have not
> been updated, in the older torrent, will they be still available to me after
> update?

Currently, no. To be clear, here's an example:

Peer A and peer B are both in the same torrent (probably because they
both updated around the same time). Peer A is sharing version 1 of
package foo, while peer B has version 1 of package bar.

Then package bar gets updated to version 2, which peer B sees and does
an apt-get update. This moves peer B into a new torrent. If B then
tries to download package foo, it will not be possible to contact peer
A, since A is not in the same torrent as B any more. This occurs even
though A and B both have/want the same version of package foo.

Obviously this is not ideal, and is exactly what the unique piece
numbers is designed to fix.

Using unique piece numbers, peer B would still be in the same torrent
as A after the update, except B's torrent would have an extra file at
the end (version 2 of package bar), and wouldn't have the old version
1 of package bar (the space is still 'reserved' in the torrent though,
but B will never try and download it). A's torrent would not have the
new version of package bar at the end, but since A will never try to
download that version, it won't be a problem. However, the same
version of package foo will be in both torrents, and so A will be able
to share it with B when B requests to download it.

> BTW, am I using the mailing list in correct way? I haven't ever used a mailing
> list before.

You're doing fine. If you hadn't said anything I wouldn't even have
guessed you were new to it. :)

Cameron