[Bug 268403] The ports mirror does not cache all the files that need to be downloaded like gentoo does

From: <bugzilla-noreply_at_freebsd.org>
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2022 05:25:13 UTC
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=268403

            Bug ID: 268403
           Summary: The ports mirror does not cache all the files that
                    need to be downloaded like gentoo does
           Product: Ports & Packages
           Version: Latest
          Hardware: Any
                OS: Any
            Status: New
          Severity: Affects Some People
          Priority: ---
         Component: Individual Port(s)
          Assignee: ports-bugs@FreeBSD.org
          Reporter: yklaxds@gmail.com

We can see that only a fairly small percentage of the files are now cached on
the ports mirror. There are a large number of third-party links directly to
sites provided by the software developers, such as GitHub or their own sites.
The number of these files is so large that the ports mirror is essentially
useless. If you don't use a VPN or proxy server, it is basically impossible to
use ports to install the software. The Gentoo mirrors basically cache all the
files you need. I don't know why this is a problem.

What exactly are the criteria for caching and not caching? I know there is some
software that has distribution restrictions or other copyright restrictions,
but they are in the minority in ports. The reality is that almost all software
is not cached on mirrors, and ports mirrors are almost impossible to use
without using a proxy or VPN.

This is not conducive to future maintenance, and if a user needs to download a
fairly old version, it may be difficult to download the software that was
available at the time. It is also not conducive to the advocacy and promotion
of FreeBSD.

Although pkg can solve the problem to some extent, ports are still an important
software installation method and one of the strengths of FreeBSD, supporting
both binary package installation and installation via source code. This is
hampered by the current caching mechanism.

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