freebsd 5.3-release and some observations

[jason andrade]

i've finally finished updating the ISO trees and release trees
for the FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE on ftp.au.freebsd.org and working
on ftp2.au.freebsd.org - it has taken a while given the
original release date.  how are other admins going with this ?

i'm still working on updating the package trees for all
architectures - i think sparc64 and amd64 completed so far.

given the length of time for package tree updates i'd be
asking if there is any thoughts that could be raised about
how better to supply package trees so they aren't `tied'
to an architecture and thus appear to be released in 3-5G
chunks.

i've also been asked if (as other distros are doing) FreeBSD
will master a DVD iso image for downloads.


i'm a little confused about the -current package trees in ports/$ARCH.

alpha has:

packages-5.2.1-release pointing at packages-5.2 and no
packages-5-current but it does have packages-4-stable

amd64 has:

packages-5-current AND packages-6-current

i386 has

packages-4-stable, packages-5-current AND packages-6-current

ia64 has

packages-5-current

sparc64 has

packages-5-current


is there  a uniform standard that can be applied across the various architectures 
or is that not possible ?  how often are the -current package sets being updated ? 
once upon a time it was a weekly (?) rebuild.  should mirrors carry this ? if not, 
should -current package sets be moved out into a completely separate '-current' 
server layout ?  just as there's a separate freebsd-archive layout/server area.


regards,

-jason