Improving distfile mirror structure

The Gentoo distfile mirror network is essential in distributing sources to our users. It offloads upstream download locations, improves throughput and reliability, guarantees distfile persistency.

The current structure of distfile mirrors dates back to 2002. It might have worked well back when we mirrored around 2500 files but it proved not to scale well. Today, mirrors hold almost 70 000 files, and this number has been causing problems for mirror admins.

The most recent discussion on restructuring mirrors started in January 2015. I have started the preliminary research in January 2017, and it resulted in GLEP 75 being created in January 2018. With the actual implementation effort starting in October 2019, I’d like to summarize all the data and update it with fresh statistics.

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