From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Meiyo Peng Subject: Re: CDN performance Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2018 13:17:05 +0800 Message-ID: <874lbk63se.fsf@gmail.com> References: <20181203154335.10366-1-ludo@gnu.org> <87tvju6145.fsf@gnu.org> <87ftv7l6gy.fsf@gmail.com> <871s6qzo6m.fsf_-_@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:34921) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gWaPy-0006So-A8 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:17:15 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gWaPv-0004Or-35 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:17:14 -0500 In-Reply-To: <871s6qzo6m.fsf_-_@gnu.org> ("Ludovic \=\?utf-8\?Q\?Court\=C3\=A8s\?\= \=\?utf-8\?Q\?\=22's\?\= message of "Sun, 09 Dec 2018 16:59:13 +0100") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?= Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org, 33600@debbugs.gnu.org Hi, I have changed my mind. I don't care about the domain name of the default substitute server any more. I am more worried about the network speed within China. While I am writing this email, my computer is downloading substitutes from ci.guix.info at an average speed of about 50kB/s. After careful thought, I realized the new CDN won't benefit China residents as planned. Any popular CDN outside China is significantly throttled by ISP/GFW and the situation is worse every year. A CDN will be a great improvement for western countries but not for many asia countries. I have been running a nginx caching mirror at home since the first time I met guix. My first attempt to install guix took me one afternoon and one night. Most of the time was wasted on downloading substitutes. After that, I searched online and found the nginx mirror configuration in guix/maintenance.git. Then I set up my own caching mirror. It would be extremely painful for me to play with guix during these months without this caching mirror. Debian was my favorite GNU/Linux distro before I discovered Guix. It usually costs me only 30 minutes to install Debian from scratch. Other GNU/Linux distros are about the same. If guix takes more than 5 hours to install, most new users will be scared away. Although now there are only a few Chinese guix users, I still prefer to set up a caching mirror within China. The user experience improvement will be significant. Like Hartmut Goebel described, I need information about "expected storage demand, expected transfer traffic from upstream, how often updates are published, how long to hold copies" so I can write a proposal to maintainers of mirrors.ustc.edu.cn to add a new mirror for guix. I tried the `guix weather` command, but it failed with an error: #+BEGIN_EXAMPLE computing 8,821 package derivations for x86_64-linux... guix weather: error: lstat: No such file or directory: "/src/config/packages/patches/libjxr-add-cmakelists-file.patch" #+END_EXAMPLE Can anyone provide the numbers for me? The numbers of mirror.hydra.gnu.org would be a good reference. In addition, I think we should put up a page on guix's website providing information about available substitute servers including address, backend build farm, geolocation, maintainer, so users (many asia residents) can pick the best substitute server for themselves. This will be necessary until alternative solutions like IPFS or GNUnet are implemented. This email only describes the situation in China. I don't intend to discourage you on the CDN plan. There is no conflicts between my proposal to set up a caching mirror in China and our plan to set up a new CDN. -- Meiyo Peng