T_Karcher@gmx.de wrote:

With more and more images and large media files on the rise, we could noticeably reduce the server load by distributing these files.

How? Well, first we'd need some (5 to 10?) mirrors willing to sync their data on a daily basis.

I thought we had discussed this before. It was decided that it would make way more sense to use a ready-made solution (Akamai) than to make one's own, but it was also decided that a change to the software would first be necessary. Currently, a tag like this:

[[Image:File_name.jpg]]

produces an <img> tag directly from just the filename:

<img src="/upload/archive/e/2/File_name.jpg">

where the "e" and the "2" depend only on the filename.

The problem with this is that these paths do not change if the image changes. This means that overriding an image by uploading a new one to Wikipedia would still serve the old version of the image from Akamai until Akamai is updated.

Hence, a change to the source code is necessary that makes the file path dependent not just on the filename, but also on either the file itself or the time it was uploaded; however, this increases the load on the database because it means an extra query for every pageview that contains an image.

Greetings, Timwi