[OS X TeX] BitTorrent-cURL

[Vic Norton]

My experience downloading MacTeX-2008 via BitTorrent  
(Transmission, ...) was hopeless. Perhaps my system cannot  
participate in BitTorrent properly. In any case, after 20 hours or so  
with only 30% downloaded, I decided to quit. At least twice as much  
stuff was uploaded by me as I downloaded.

So I decided to try cURL for the first time. It was a complete  
success. I could quit any time I wanted and start things back up  
whenever I wanted. The downloads averaged over 80 KB/sec, which high  
for me. (I have a bandwidth of 96 KB/sec.)

I thought I'd document what I did in case anyone is interested. The  
(terminal) downloads are for illustration purposes only. They are  
incomplete.

Regards,

Vic

###
Some CTAN mirrors

   gentoo.chem.wisc.edu (USA)
     URL: ftp://gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/tex-archive/
     URL: http://gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/tex-archive/

   ftp.math.purdue.edu (USA)
     URL: ftp://ftp.math.purdue.edu/mirrors/ctan.org/
     URL: http://ftp.math.purdue.edu/mirrors/ctan.org/

### cURL session 1 ###
To start:
curl \
-o ~/Download/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip \
http://gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/tex-archive/\
systems/mac/mactex/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip

To continue (after ^C abort):
curl -C - \
-o ~/Download/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip \
http://gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/tex-archive/\
systems/mac/mactex/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip

A (partial) terminal session:
vic$ curl \
 > -o ~/Download/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip \
 > http://gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/tex-archive/\
 > systems/mac/mactex/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip
   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time      
Time  Current
                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent     
Left  Speed
   1 1176M    1 11.9M    0     0  81073      0  4:13:41  0:02:34   
4:11:07 76210^C
vic$ curl -C - \
 > -o ~/Download/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip \
 > http://gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/tex-archive/\
 > systems/mac/mactex/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip
** Resuming transfer from byte position 12578816
   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time      
Time  Current
                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent     
Left  Speed
   1 1164M    1 13.8M    0     0  81604      0  4:09:28  0:02:58   
4:06:30 81814^C
vic$ curl -C - -o ~/Download/MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip http:// 
gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/tex-archive/systems/mac/mactex/ 
MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip
** Resuming transfer from byte position 27189248
   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time      
Time  Current
                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent     
Left  Speed
   0 1150M    0 4965k    0     0  81340      0  4:07:17  0:01:02   
4:06:15 81830^C
vic$

At this point I have downloaded 30.8 MB of MacTeX-20080831.mpkg.zip. I
can quit terminal and come back whenever I want or continue downloading
the rest of the file. (Note: the long line above is history.)


### cURL session 2 ###
To start:
curl \
-o ~/Download/MacTeXtras-20080903.zip \
ftp://ftp.math.purdue.edu/mirrors/ctan.org/\
systems/mac/mactex/MacTeXtras-20080903.zip

To continue (after ^C abort):
curl -C - \
-o ~/Download/MacTeXtras-20080903.zip \
ftp://ftp.math.purdue.edu/mirrors/ctan.org/\
systems/mac/mactex/MacTeXtras-20080903.zip

A (partial) terminal session:
vic$ curl \
 > -o ~/Download/MacTeXtras-20080903.zip \
 > ftp://ftp.math.purdue.edu/mirrors/ctan.org/\
 > systems/mac/mactex/MacTeXtras-20080903.zip
   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time      
Time  Current
                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent     
Left  Speed
   3  275M    3 9168k    0     0  80896      0  0:59:29  0:01:56   
0:57:33 81858^C
vic$ curl -C - \
 > -o ~/Download/MacTeXtras-20080903.zip \
 > ftp://ftp.math.purdue.edu/mirrors/ctan.org/\
 > systems/mac/mactex/MacTeXtras-20080903.zip
** Resuming transfer from byte position 9424896
   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time      
Time  Current
                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent     
Left  Speed
   1  266M    1 4187k    0     0  79865      0  0:58:17  0:00:53   
0:57:24 81858^C
vic$

At this point I have downloaded 13.1 MB of MacTeXtras-20080903.zip. I
can continue downloading the rest of the file any time I want.