> I believe that the ftp/sup area was shuffled around a bit in order to
> bring more disk space on line for the 1.1 release, and the timestamps
> were accidently not preserved.  And since sup uses timestamps for 
> determining whether file(s) need to be updated... bad things happen.

Since most sup server sites seem to use supscan, would it be feasible
to have supscan produce an MD5 checksum list, which is returned to the
client and used in retreival decsions.

You would probably want to still use timestamps as well, the MD5
checksum is used only to veto an update where timestamp on server is
newer but files are the same.

This model would (assuming the MD5 list is accurate) avoid needless
downloads while maintaining the essential flavour and behavior of SUP.

If there is enough interest, I can look at making the necessary
changes - assuming someone else is not already doing so.

--sjg