#4450 short redirect links to LiveCD images (including spins)
Closed: Fixed 6 years ago Opened 9 years ago by lersek.

Similarly to ticket 3866, I'm requesting a generic URL shortener service for image files. This time however the linked images would not be qcow2 or similar cloud / VM images, but normal Fedora LiveCD ISOs.

Specifically, I'm writing a RH whitepaper and would like to include the following download link in it:

https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/20/Live/x86_64/Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1.iso

It's clearly way too long.

That is, I have the same issue as described in ticket 3866 -- embed Fedora image links in documentation.

Links should be short and look nice. The filename component (Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1.iso) already explains everything worth knowing about the image, hence the domain name and the directory components should be as short as possible, while still convincing the reader that the full URL belongs to the Fedora Project. For example:

https://images.fedoraproject.org/Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1.iso

This is 65 characters long, which is (barely) acceptable for an embedded script that is typeset in monospace and is limited to 80 columns.

I'm copying the ticket metadata from 3866 (type, milestone etc).

Thanks!
Laszlo


So, we have talked about setting up a url shortener in the past, but never done so.

For our paste service we use: http://ur1.ca/

Could we just use them for this as well, or do we really need something fedora specific? (They are open source, etc).

Replying to [comment:1 kevin]:

So, we have talked about setting up a url shortener in the past, but never done so.

For our paste service we use: http://ur1.ca/

Could we just use them for this as well, or do we really need something fedora specific? (They are open source, etc).

Wow, I've completly missed this followup. I didn't get your update in email (no clue why) and due to other responsibilities in the meantime I'm revisiting this ticket only now. So, apologies about the delay.

Regarding the shortened URL: I'll put it in a Red Hat whitepaper. The language that leads up to the link is:


  • Download a Fedora LiveCD:

wget https://REST_OF_LINK_HERE

I think I wouldn't mind endorsing "ur1.ca" per se in the whitepaper. However, given the context, the reader, especially a Red Hat customer, might ask why a Red Hat whitepaper recommends downloading a Fedora LiveCD "from a non-Red Hat-associated, non-Fedora-associated website". Obviously the link would point to the official Fedora location, but it wouldn't show, and if I have to explain it in the text ("this link here is shortened for typesetting purposes and really really points to dl.fedoraproject.org") then it's kind of awkward.

This is why I requested that the shortener's domain name clearly imply "official Fedora". (Obviously, if we had a generic URL shortener under the fedoraproject.org umbrella, then I could misleadingly create a short URL there that would point outside of fedoraproject.org, defeating the entire purpose. But I wouldn't do that of course, and more importantly, the reader wouldn't think I could do that.)

IOW the issue is not technical nor legal; it's pure PR. If you think it's bogus, just state that please and I'll go with your recommendation (ur1.ca). Thanks!

ok, we aren't likely to do anything super soon, but some more questions... :)

  • When is your deadline? When do you need this?

  • You say 'download a fedora livecd'... which one? Workstation/x86_64?

  • Does the link always need to point to the same thing? Or should it point to the newest/stable version?
    (we have something like this for cloud images already where it points to the latest).

  • How long should links last? Forever? Or until the release is EOL?

This has been sitting here for a few years. :cry:

So, we now have https://da.gd which is run by someone we know and they intend to keep it around.

Do we still need this?

Hi Kevin,

I guess da.gd is OK to use (I just used it an RHBZ comment), but I would like it (the home page namely) to state those exact two things that you seem to be promising here:

  • "it is someone we know" -- who exactly? I checked "whois" for the domain name, but it should be more obvious.

  • "they intend to keep it around" -- it would be nice to read that from "them".

Again, my goal would be to use a URL shortener that is visibly associated with the Fedora project.

BTW, what happened to the recommendation (from three years ago) of ur1.ca? They too seem to be around still; why is da.gd preferred over ur1.ca now? The way they introduce themselves on their home page appears more transparent than the intro on da.gd (which is "nothing").

(Of course, ur1.ca still doesn't look strongly enough associated with the Fedora project for my needs.)

Thanks.

da.gd is run by @codeblock who is one of our main fulltime sysadmins. We can see if he can add some notes to the home page around contact and that it plans to stay around.

ur1.ca broke and went away for many months/a year. I wasn't even aware it came back up, status.net (the company running it) seems to now be a placeholder for another company, so I am not even sure they still exist. In short we found it unreliable and it's future in question.

In any case we have tons more important things to run than our own url shortener, so I'd suggest we just use da.gd and call it a day.

da.gd works for me, thank you.

Metadata Update from @lersek:
- Issue close_status updated to: Fixed
- Issue status updated to: Closed (was: Open)

6 years ago

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