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Metalinks Tries to Simplify Downloads
ant_tmwx writes "Metalinks collect information about files in an XML format used by programs that download. The information includes mirror lists, ways to retrieve the file on P2P networks, checksums for verifying and correcting downloads, operating system, language, and other details. Using Metalinks details the Free Software programs you can use to download them with. There are also clients on Mac and Windows. With a list of multiple ways to download a file, programs can switch to another method if one goes down. Or a file can be downloaded from multiple mirrors at once, usually making the download go much faster. Downloads can be repaired during transfer to guarantee no errors. All this makes things automatic which are usually not possible or at least difficult, and increases efficiency, availability, and reliability over regular download links. OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, and other Linux/BSD distributions use them for large downloads."
GetRight (Windows) is a Download Manager that supports Metalink.
FlashGot (Cross platform, Open Source) is a Firefox extension that integrates with around 30 Download Managers and supports Metalink with wxDownload Fast, Speed Download, and GetRight 5.2d and later.
aria2 (Unix/Windows, Open Source) is a high speed download utility that supports segmented downloads, BitTorrent, and Metalink (HTTP/FTP/BitTorrent integrated) from the command line.
Speed Download (Mac) is a slick Download Manager with fast downloads & P2P filesharing. It integrates with popular Mac browsers like Safari, Camino, & Firefox (along with 5 others).
wxDownload Fast (Mac/Unix/Windows, Open Source) supports Metalink.
Free Download Manager (Windows) unreleased BETA supports Metalink.
Orbit Downloader (Windows) is a new download manager with interesting P2P features.
SmartFTP (Windows), an excellent FTP client on Windows, supports Metalink for adding files to a transfer queue and checksum verification (no acceleration).
Phex (Mac/Unix/Windows) is a Gnutella P2P client that can export Metalinks.
If you like Metalink, request support in these clients on their forums or bug trackers:
CuteFTP is a Windows GUI FTP client.
Bouncer (Open Source) powers downloads for various projects like Mozilla. A patch for Metalink generation has been submitted by Bram Neijt but not yet integrated.
cURL (Cross platform, Open Source) an interface for libcurl would be cool. Anyone up for writing one?
Shareaza (Open Source) would be great as well.
Opera is a great standards compliant browser that's always adding new features. Current threads: 1, 2, 3
Firefox (Open Source) is pretty neat too. So looks like we need to wait alittle.
Life is Reality
http://www.metalinker.org/Metalink_3.0_Spec.odt
http://www.metalinker.org/Metalink_3.0_Spec.pdf
This is a good idea. It attempts to formalize something thats been done many times before. We do it manually when download from Sourceforge, Yum has a list of mirrors it does automatically. A standard would be nice. I would like to see a new web protocol for it - ie:
metalink://host.com/file.ml
Then inside file.ml simply a list of URLs and weights...
ftp://host1.com/file.rpm 10
http://host2.com/file.rpm 10
torrent://host3.com/file.rpm 20
etc
XML doesn't help.
Great question! aria2 is the only client (so far, others are in progress) to support segment hashes (aka chunk checksums/repair information) directly in the metalink. It just came out recently. For an example, check out the opensuse metalinks. I think this is one of the most important parts about metalink, files are verified during transfer (and corrupted files are fixed) over plain ftp/http with no server/tracker changes.