# Metalink (XML) library for Ruby? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [January 6, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/metalink-xml-library-for-ruby/125133 "2008-01-06T00:23:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anthonybaker)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/metalink-xml-library-for-ruby/125133/1 "2008-01-06T00:23:13Z")
Hi, Would anyone be interested in working on a Metalink library for Ruby? There’s already one for PHP & Python ( [Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting.](http://code.google.com/p/metalink-library/) ). Metalink is a simple XML format for describing downloads. Most .metalink files contain mirror lists/p2p (the various ways you can get a file) and checksums (for file verification). They’re frequently used for large files like ISOs and also contain chunk checksums for repairing downloads and other info. But they’re also used by smaller things like cURL, [OpenOffice.org](http://OpenOffice.org), podcasts, videos, and other stuff. Close to 20 download programs support Metalink. There’s more info at > **[Metalink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalink)** > > Metalink is an extensible metadata file format that describes one or more computer files available for download. It specifies files appropriate for the user's language and operating system; facilitates file verification and recovery from data corruption; and lists alternate download sources (mirror URIs). > The metadata is encoded in HTTP header fields and/or in an XML file with extension .meta4 or .metalink. The duplicate download locations provide reliability in case one method fails. Some cl... Here’s an example ruby-1.8.6-p111.tar.gz.metalink (most would contain more mirrors, and maybe a description): Ruby 1.8.6-p111 (md5: c36e011733a3a3be6f43ba27b7cd7485) c36e011733a3a3be6f43ba27b7cd7485 ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.6-p111.tar.gz Thanks, ---
**Author:** ![anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anthonybaker)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/metalink-xml-library-for-ruby/125133/2 "2008-01-06T16:25:27Z")
On Jan 5, 2008 5:22 PM, Anthony B. wrote: > Would anyone be interested in working on a Metalink library for Ruby? Metalinks are very cool. There’s some folks working on a wget implementation in Ruby, and I had proposed they incorporate metalinks, I don’t think they’ve done that yet, maybe not ever. Some guy named Dag Odenhall[1] looks started a project for this on sharesource[2], but it doesn’t appear to have anything done. I’m sorry I don’t have time to help you in the near future. Daniel Brumbaugh K. [1] > **[Tim Groeneveld](https://timg.ws)** > > Random musings from the world of an Open Source geek [2] > **[Tim Groeneveld](https://timg.ws)** > > Random musings from the world of an Open Source geek ---
**Author:** ![anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anthonybaker)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/metalink-xml-library-for-ruby/125133/3 "2008-01-09T01:08:28Z")
On Jan 6, 2008 10:24 AM, Daniel Brumbaugh K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Daniel Brumbaugh K. > > [1] > [Tim Groeneveld - Random musings from the world of an Open Source geek](http://sharesource.org/user/dag/) > [2] > [http://sharesource.org/project/metalink4r](http://sharesource.org/project/metalink4r) Daniel, thanks a lot for the encouragement! I hadn’t known about metalink4r, even tho there was never a release it’s at least interesting to know that someone thought about doing it 🙂 If this seems like something that you’d be interesting in working on later, please let me know. Or if you’re just interested in metalinks, we have a pretty low traffic discussion list at [http://groups.google.com/group/metalink-discussion](http://groups.google.com/group/metalink-discussion) , feel free to join us. ---
**Author:** ![anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anthonybaker)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/metalink-xml-library-for-ruby/125133/4 "2008-01-09T17:30:22Z")
On 6 Jan., 00:22, Anthony B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hi, > > Would anyone be interested in working on a Metalink library for Ruby? > There’s already one for PHP & Python ([Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting.](http://code.google.com/p/metalink-library/)). Hello Anthony, I would like to help porting my library to Ruby. That would be a good way to learn it 😉 But I would need someone to help with the trickier parts at least: - reading XML - hash libraries (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, maybe ED2K) - HTTP requests and responses including headers - bin2ascii for creating and parsing BitTorrent The Python code is a bit more than 2000 lines long and I would port most of them. Anyone interested? ---
**Author:** ![anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anthonybaker)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/metalink-xml-library-for-ruby/125133/5 "2008-01-09T17:36:53Z")
On 9 Jan 2008, at 16:29, Rene L. wrote: > That would be a good way to learn it 😉 > But I would need someone to help with the trickier parts at least: > > - reading XML > - hash libraries (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, maybe ED2K) > - HTTP requests and responses including headers > - bin2ascii for creating and parsing BitTorrent > > The Python code is a bit more than 2000 lines long and I would port > most of them. None of that’s terribly difficult, I’d be happy to lend a hand (and I wrote metalink support into an app on the mac, so I at least have a vague idea of what’s going on 🙂 ) Fred ---
**Author:** ![anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@anthonybaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/anthonybaker)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/metalink-xml-library-for-ruby/125133/6 "2008-01-09T21:57:05Z")
On Jan 9, 2008 11:29 AM, Rene L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > But I would need someone to help with the trickier parts at least: > > - reading XML > - hash libraries (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, maybe ED2K) > - HTTP requests and responses including headers > - bin2ascii for creating and parsing BitTorrent > > The Python code is a bit more than 2000 lines long and I would port > most of them. > > Anyone interested? Rene, that would be great if you & Fred could collaborate. I take it you’ve seen Fred’s reply, he worked on Speed Download (a cool and absolutely gorgeous download manager) from > **[VideoDuke: the best video downloader for Mac](https://www.yazsoft.com/)** > > If you are looking for a way to download video from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and other websites on Mac, then VideoDuke is exactly what you need. small world, didn’t expect to run into both you guys here 🙂