This is an important issue. So this section will
spend some effort to explain the backgrounds. We will say this
several times: under no circumstances should you mirror from
ftp.FreeBSD.org
.
Mirrors are organized by country. All
official mirrors have a DNS entry of the form
ftpN.CC.FreeBSD.org
.
CC (i.e. country code) is the
top level domain (TLD)
of the country where this mirror is located.
N is a number,
telling that the host would be the Nth
mirror in that country.
(Same applies to cvsupN.CC.FreeBSD.org
,
wwwN.CC.FreeBSD.org
, etc.)
There are mirrors with no CC part.
These are the mirror sites that are very well connected and
allow a large number of concurrent users.
ftp.FreeBSD.org
is actually two machines, one currently
located in Denmark and the other in the United States.
It is NOT a master site and should never be
used to mirror from. Lots of online documentation leads
“interactive”users to
ftp.FreeBSD.org
so automated mirroring
systems should find a different machine to mirror from.
Additionally there exists a hierarchy of mirrors, which is described in terms of tiers. The master sites are not referred to but can be described as Tier-0. Mirrors that mirror from these sites can be considered Tier-1, mirrors of Tier-1-mirrors, are Tier-2, etc. Official sites are encouraged to be of a low tier, but the lower the tier the higher the requirements in terms as described in Section 2, “Requirements for FreeBSD mirrors”. Also access to low-tier-mirrors may be restricted, and access to master sites is definitely restricted. The tier-hierarchy is not reflected by DNS and generally not documented anywhere except for the master sites. However, official mirrors with low numbers like 1-4, are usually Tier-1 (this is just a rough hint, and there is no rule).
Under no circumstances should you mirror from ftp.FreeBSD.org
.
The short answer is: from the
site that is closest to you in Internet terms, or gives you
the fastest access.
If you have no special intentions or requirements, the statement in Section 4.2, “Ok, but where should I get the stuff now?” applies. This means:
Check for those which provide fastest access (number of hops, round-trip-times) and offer the services you intend to use (like rsync or CVSup).
Contact the administrators of your chosen site stating your request, and asking about their terms and policies.
Set up your mirror as described above.
In general the description in Section 4.2.1, “I just want to mirror from somewhere!” still applies. Of course you may want to put some weight on the fact that your upstream should be of a low tier. There are some other considerations about official mirrors that are described in Section 5, “Official Mirrors”.
If you have good reasons and good prerequisites,
you may want and get access to one of the
master sites. Access to these sites is
generally restricted, and there are special policies
for access. If you are already an official
mirror, this certainly helps you getting access.
In any other case make sure your country really needs another mirror.
If it already has three or more, ask the “zone administrator” (<hostmaster@CC.FreeBSD.org>
) or FreeBSD mirror sites mailing lists first.
Whoever helped you become, an official
should have helped you gain access to an appropriate upstream
host, either one of the master sites or a suitable Tier-1
site. If not, you can send email to
<mirror-admin@FreeBSD.org>
to request help with
that.
There are three master sites for the FTP fileset and one for the CVS repository (the web pages and docs are obtained from CVS, so there is no need for master).
This is the master site for the FTP fileset.
ftp-master.FreeBSD.org
provides
rsync and CVSup
access, in addition to FTP.
Refer to Section 3.1.2, “With rsync” and
Section 3.1.3, “With CVSup” how to access
via these protocols.
Mirrors are also encouraged to allow rsync access for the FTP contents, since they are Tier-1-mirrors.
This is the master site for the CVS repository.
cvsup-master.FreeBSD.org
provides
CVSup access only.
See Section 3.2.1, “Using CVSup” for details.
To get access, you need to contact the CVSup Mirror Site Coordinator <cvsup-master@FreeBSD.org>
.
Make sure you read the
FreeBSD CVSup Access Policy
first!
Set up the required authentication by following
these
instructions. Make sure you specify the server as
freefall.FreeBSD.org
on the cvpasswd
command line, as described in this document,
even when you are contacting
cvsup-master.FreeBSD.org
This, and other documents, can be downloaded from http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
For questions about FreeBSD, read the
documentation before
contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.