tar-mirror.rst

Creating and using a tar mirror

This is an example of how to create a tar mirror using lighttpd.

Prerequisites

You will need lighttpd installed.

I will be using gnome-modulesets as an example, which can be cloned from http://gnome7.codethink.co.uk/gnome-modulesets.git.

Starting a tar server

1. Set up a directory containing mirrors

Choose a suitable directory to hold your mirrored tar files, e.g. /var/www/tar.

Place the tar files you want to use as mirrors in your mirror dir, e.g.

mkdir -p /var/www/tar/gettext
wget -O /var/www/tar/gettext/gettext-0.19.8.1.tar.xz https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/gettext-0.19.8.1.tar.xz

2. Configure lighttpd

Write out a lighttpd.conf as follows:

server.document-root = "/var/www/tar/"
server.port = 3000

dir-listing.activate = "enable"

Note

If you have your mirrors in another directory, replace /var/www/tar/ with that directory.

Note

An example lighttpd.conf that works for both git and tar services is available :ref:`here <lighttpd_git_tar_conf>`

3. Start lighttpd

lighttpd can be invoked with the command-line lighttpd -D -f lighttpd.conf.

4. Test that you can fetch from it

We can then download the mirrored file with wget 127.0.0.1:3000/tar/gettext/gettext-0.19.8.1.tar.xz.

Note

If you have set server.port to something other than the default, you will need to replace the '3000' in the command-line.

5. Configure the project to use the mirror

To add this local http server as a mirror, add the following to the project.conf:

mirrors:
- name: local-mirror
  aliases:
    ftp_gnu_org:
    - http://127.0.0.1:3000/tar/

6. Test that the mirror works

We can make buildstream use the mirror by setting the alias to an invalid URL, e.g.

aliases:
  ftp_gnu_org: https://www.example.com/invalid/url/

Now, if you build an element that uses the source you placed in the mirror (e.g. bst build core-deps/gettext.bst), you will see that it uses your mirror.

Further reading

If this mirror isn't being used exclusively in a secure network, it is strongly recommended you use SSL.

Lighttpd is documented on its wiki.