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From: "Timm Murray" <hardburn@runbox.com>
To: gopher@complete.org
Subject: [gopher] +MIRRORS Information View
Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 19:30:12 GMT
Message-Id: <E19udKW-0000cl-8d@odie.runbox.com>
Sender: gopher-bounce@complete.org
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Reply-to: gopher@complete.org

This is a suggestion to add a +MIRRORS listing to a Gopher+ information blo=
ck=20
(retreived via 'selector\t!' from Gopher+ servers).  It would look somethin=
g=20
like this:

----
+MIRRORS:=20
selector1\thost1\tport1
selector2\thost2\tport2
selector3\thost3\tport3
----

Basically, this is a listing of servers that mirror the associated file, wi=
th=20
the fields being the selection string, the host, and the port number, all=
=20
delimited by tabs.

To ensure the servers really are hosting the same file, I suggest a cryptog=
raphic=20
hash and OpenPGP key sign information also be added:

----
+HASH:=20
Algorithm: SHA1
Encoding: hex
Value: c3ed72ece98f23239aea57f5c2aef64a0227198b

+SIGN:=20
*** OpenPGP signature block ***=20=20
----

For the hash, 'Algorithm' can be either SHA1 or MD5--more could be added=20
in the future. 'Encoding' can be hex or base64 (others?).

The OpenPGP signature block is in ASCII Armor format, covered in RFC2440.

Servers supporting +MIRRORS can choose to return either +HASH or +SIGN or b=
oth.  It=20
is highly recommended to return at least one of them.

Thoughts?