FREE SOFTWARE DIRECTORY

NSBD

Not-So-Bad Distribution is an automated Web-based distribution system designed for distributing free software on the internet, where users cannot trust the network and cannot entirely trust the software maintainers. NSBD authenticates packages with GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) or "Pretty Good(Tm) Privacy" (PGP(Tm)) digital signatures so users can be assured that packages have not been tampered with, and it limits the maintainer to only update selected files and directories on the user's computer. NSBD's focus is on security, leaving as much control as is practical in the users' hands.

NSBD handles automated updates by supplying a means of checking for updates to packages and automatically downloading and installing the updates. This "automated pull" style of distribution has the same effect as the "push" style of distribution, but gives more control to the user. A direct "push" style is also supported, which is especially appropriate for situations where there are multiple contributors to a shared server (for example, a shared web-page server). NSBD can "pull" directly over http or by using rsync to minimize network usage.

Last updated 2 Mar, 2005