Re: release/something metadata file

seth vidal wrote:
> Hi,
>  Last week we discussed a file that would describe where the other misc
> data could be found for this repository.
> 
> So this file, b/c it is the one used to describe the others might
> actually need to be standard name (well it doesn't have to be but it
> might be nice rather than pointing people to arbitrarily named files for
> the whole repository location)
> anyway I was thinking:
> repository.xml
> metadata.xml
> 
> and I had the following thoughts about its format:
> 
> <repository>
>   <name>some name for human consumption</name>
>   <id>somesinglewordid</id>
>   <description>some text description</description>
>   <metadata>
>     <data type='base'>relative/path/to/base.xml</data>
>     <data type='filelist'>relative/path/to/filelists.xml</data>
>     <data type='other'>relative/path/to/other.xml</data>
>     ...
>   </metadata>
> </repository>
> 
> I had another zany idea for repositories to have paths to others of
> these files listed for repository dependencies, but that's just nutzoid.
> 
> how does the above mesh with everyone?

Sounds great to me.

If we include repository-wide metadata in this file, could we also 
namespace it?  I'm thinking:

<repository xmlns:apt="foo">
   <name>Debian unstable main</name>
   <id>unstable-main</id>
   <description>The Debian distribution, development branch</description>
   <apt:archive>unstable</apt:archive>
   <apt:component>main</apt:component>
   <apt:origin>Debian</apt:origin>
   <apt:label>Debian</apt:label>
   <apt:architecture>i386</apt:architecture>
   <metadata>
     <data type="base" href="packages.xml"/>
   </metadata>
</repository>

This would make this file a true stand-in for apt's Release file.

This is, strictly speaking, an apt issue instead of a Debian issue, and 
would apply equally to apt-rpm.