simplestreams json or index.asc for deliverables in the new list-of-deliverables?

[Fabian Deutsch]

----- Original Message -----
> FESCo Ticket #1427 <https://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/1427>
> formalizes the list of deliverables for each Fedora release. Cool.
> 
> Let's go a step beyond this and make a machine-readable list, at least
> of image-based deliverables. One approach would be to use using Ubuntu's
> simplestreams
> format, documented at
> <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~smoser/simplestreams/trunk/view/head:/doc/README.>

Some pros/cons on this:
+ It has the concept of a stream (vendor, product, version)
+ It supports different hash types
+ It can be signed
+ Timestamp within the file
+ Can represent multiple versions of the same stream

- ftype is not very helpful (no precise format descirption)
- size is very unspecific (compressed/uncompressed?) (gb vs mb vs mib)
- The file slook quite complex

> A second option would be the index.asc as used by virt-builder:
> <https://fedorahosted.org/rel-eng/ticket/5805>

Some pros/cons I see here:
+ I tincludes both, compressed + uncompressed, disk sizes
+ Tells the format of the image
+ I personally like the structure much more

+/- It includes some non-image stuff (i.e. expand=)

- The type of the checksum is not specified in the conf file
- I'm missing a stream like scheme; a gloabl identifier to be able to sort images according to a version/build-date

> That way, we'd have a standardized way for applications to find and
> download/launch/whatever various Fedora images. This is a definite need
> (see https://fedorahosted.org/cloud/ticket/93) and rather than
> inventing a new wheel, maybe we could see if we could pound one of
> these into shape.

After all IMO simplestreams gives us what we need.

- fabian