Chris G Demetriou said:
> 
> there's absolutely no restriction on what port maintainers put in the
> 'arch' tree for their architecture.  there have been "known uses" in
> the past.  but that doesn't restrict new uses.

	Unfortunately, amiga/ is a softlink, not a tree, and 
therefore seemingly excludes amiga specific binaries.  It would actually 
be an excellent solution to make the amiga/ and NetBSD-Amiga/ trees 
mirror each other.  That would, apparently, address your desires 
(possibly not to your satisfaction, but at least in theory), without 
causing a significant change in the present Amiga-port distribution methods.

> First of all, there _is_ a binary area for -current binaries.  second,
> some would argue (i think i might) that "experimental *" shouldn't be
> put up in a widely advertised FTP area.
>
> Second:
> 	(1) the "tools" mentioned may be appropriate for arch/amiga, but
> 	(2) the "packages, X11 packages, and binaries," etc. _ARE_
> 	    either appropriate for:
> 		(a) packages/binaries/NetBSD-1.0/m68k8k
> 		(b) packages/binaries/NetBSD-current/[something]
> 
> 	I sincerely doubt that there are a _large_ number of
> 	precompiled software packages that are amiga-specific.

	Yes, but there aren't currently packages specific to any of the 
m68k8k architectures on sun-lamp.  Either non-amiga m68k8k packages don't 
exist, or like most of the Amiga files, are stashed away on another 
server (or are all considered 'experimental' and hidden).  Actually, I've 
had several Mac people FTP from my NetBSD-Amiga archives, so maybe making 
/m68k8k point to /amiga wouldn't be a bad idea, at least until Sun3 and 
Mac people get their own archive going.

> It also means that people who are distributing NetBSD on various
> media, e.g. CD-ROM's, tapes, or whatever, either:
> 	(1) are forced to look at a "non-authoritative" site,
> 	(2) are convinced (by lack of knowledge of an "authoritative"
> 		site) that they are looking at an the master site, or
> 	(3) don't include all of the "goodies" that they should.
> 
> The point is, the best way to get maximum distribution and to make
> sure that people are aware of what's out there is to put them on the
> authoritative site.

		I sincerely doubt that there will ever be a NetBSD CD
that has any packages that aren't for -i386.  The Amiga CD that 
included NetBSD packages was made from uni-regensburg archives.
The reality is that uni-regensburg's archives already are _the_ 
place to get NetBSD-Amiga files, and already have a mirroring system in 
place, possibly with wider distribution than sun-lamp's package/.


> You've given me no reason to doubt that it can support it reasonably.
> (It's worth noting that i'm not sure that all of the stuff that is up
> on the uni-regensburg site _should_ go up on a "public" ftp site.  A
> lot of the stuff, esp. test kernels, test x servers, etc., should be
> in hidden directories, etc.  The point is, unless you know what's
> there, and what the caveats are related to using it, you shouldn't
> get it.)

	I've seen far more advantage to having "public" distribution of 
experimental/ than for not, at least within the Amiga community.  Anyone 
who can read the install doc can understand what "experimental/" means, 
and often understands what a bug report is, too.  I see no reason to hide 
things from users who are willing to take a risk, and often have no 
alternative.

> > 	Given that the current NetBSD-Amiga archives are superior to the 
> > archives currently on ftp.netbsd.org and that there needs to be a 
> > NetBSD-Amiga archive in the US or Cananda, it follows that either someone 
> > in the US or Canada should mirror ftp.uni-regensburg.de or that the 
> > current NetBSD-Amiga archives should be integrated into the archives on 
> > sun-lamp.
> 
> I would say the latter.  the former solution serious has long-term
> problems, and that's what i care about.
> 
> I think it's an _incredibly_ had idea to encourage each port to have
> its own archive site, or support such a site.
> 
> I've seen nobody 'step up' to coordinate such an integration.

	I'd do it - If I weren't losing my access in a few days.  However - 
unless such an effort were cordinated with Hubert (so the sites could 
mirror each other), I would think it pointless.  Until the two 
are the same, uni-regensburg will be dominant.  The easiest answer is for 
sun-lamp to adopt the present NetBSD-Amiga tree.  The only advantage to 
be gained from modifying it is to split it into amiga/ and m68k8k/.
Myself, I'd suggest a complete reworking of sun-lamp's tree - in the 
little bit of browsing I did today, I found it quite awkward.


-- 
//  Stephen Champion                   Software Eng, *ix Admin, OS Design
//  schampion@hampshire.edu            Hampshire College - Amherst, MA
//  steve@herb.kuru.com                Amiga 3000/25    NetBSD 1.0
#define Disclaimer "This product is completely without warranty."