What about packages on ftp?

[zvr]

There are projects who regularly publish their canonical releases on ftp. A typical example would be something like ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-7.2.0/gcc-7.2.0.tar.gz. Are there plans for such a type? (because the spec now says:

Special URL schemes [...] such as [...] ftp:// are NOT valid purl types

[pombredanne]

@zvr good point! There could be two ways to handle these:

1. as a generic purl such as this: generic:[email protected]?download_url=ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-7.2.0/gcc-7.2.0.tar.gz

2. or since GNU is rather prominent, and assuming that a good large number of the projects follow similar conventions on gnu.org we could define a gnu: purl type as something like this: gnu:[email protected] with a default "repository" of ftp.gnu.org or ftp.gnu.org/gnu

Special URL schemes [...] such as [...] ftp:// are NOT valid purl types

Indeed, one important point is to avoid mixing up purl with other plain web URLs and focus first on the "what" of a package and second on the "how" to get it, which is either implied by the type or can be made explicit with a qualifier for things that are not on the main default package repo of a type

[pombredanne]

@zvr does this answers your question alright? If so please feel free to close.

[zvr]

Yes, thanks! The idea of adding a gnu: type is actually pretty useful.

[pombredanne]

let me reopen this to make sure we do not forget to add a gnu type :)