in reply to Advice on building a CPAN mirror

I actually set up a CPAN mirror earlier this year.

Unless you find that you can get significantly better network performance on a closer mirror, I recommend just going with funet.fi. From what I've gathered in my communications with them, they don't seem to mind, and it really is the most reliable. (You should still ask first). I started with a local mirror, but then switched over to funet whenever that other mirror dropped off the face of the planet without a trace.

As for the MOTD, you need to understand that ftp.funet.fi rsync server is hosting more than just CPAN. That MOTD is saying don't try to download their entire site. If all you are doing is rsync'ing the CPAN repository, that is ok.

I definately suggest rsync over ftp. If your security people don't know what rsync is, work hard to extend them a clue. As of this morning the repository size is 1.2 gigs. My last rsync (running twice a day) used less than 9 megs of traffic and took about 4 minutes for all of CPAN (your speed results will vary depending on your bandwidth).

Other advice:

  • If you are setting up a cron job to update your mirror, make sure you mail yourself the results so that you can monitor everything. I'm glad I did this or I would have never known that the mirror I was maintaining went stale when the other mirror disappeared.
  • Make sure when you pubilish the mirror, you make it available in /pub/CPAN and not in your document root. This will make things easier on you later if you ever decide you want to participate in load balancing.

    If you have any other questions, feel free to msg me, or email me.. cpan@pair.com. :)

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