# Why not mirror all possible distfiles on an ftp server ?



## Alain De Vos (Mar 18, 2022)

Something like ftp.freebsd.org/distfiles , public and containing all possible distfiles by all ports, together with their checksum ?

I found something similar,




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						Index of /distfiles
					





					repo.nepustil.net


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## Phishfry (Mar 18, 2022)

Have you thought of the legal ramifications to FreeBSD?

Ports tree is not all open source. There are paid applications as well.
Now if you host a companies application download on your infrastructure is that legal?
Your may not be authorized to distribute said program.

I can see why we use the current method. The end user downloads said application.
Not saved on our infrastructure.


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## Phishfry (Mar 18, 2022)

To pre-empt your next question: If thats true then how could we have packages but not host the distfiles?
I dunno. I still think it provides a layer of legal insulation by not hosting the distfiles.


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## grahamperrin@ (Mar 19, 2022)

> … *all possible distfiles* …



net/citrix_ica as an example of one that's _not_ possible:



> May not be redistributed due to licensing. Please visit https://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-receiver/linux/ accept their license and download linuxx86-13.10.0.20.tar.gz into /usr/ports/distfiles




From <https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/hubs/#mirror-pkgs>: 



> Due to very high requirements of bandwidth, storage and adminstration the FreeBSD Project has decided not to allow public mirrors of packages. …



The same _might_ be true for distfiles. Just a guess.


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