SDB:Metalink
Location of openSUSE metalinks
You can find metalinks for openSUSE images by appending .meta4 or .metalink to the download URL.
For example, if you are interested in this download:
https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.5/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.5-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
You would get the Metalink data using:
https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.5/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.5-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso.metalink
All available Metalink URL's for a particular download can be found by appending .mirrorlist to the original URL. For the example above, this would be:
https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.5/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.5-DVD-x86_64-Build491.1-Media.iso.mirrorlist
The .mirrorlist pages are intended to be visited in a web browser.
Using metalinks
You'll need download manager that can handle the metalink format, some examples are:
Cross Platform
| Application | Description |
|---|---|
| DownThemAll! | An extension for Firefox, is probably the easiest way for most people to try out Metalinks. |
| wxDownload Fast | (No Mac OS binary) Packages for some openSUSE releases are here |
GNU/Linux
| Application | Description |
|---|---|
| aria2 | aria2 is the recommended Unix command line client, it has the ability to prevent checksum errors. Packages for openSUSE are here. GUIs are also available.) |
| KGet | GUI client from KDE Applications. Available with standard repositories. |
Mac OS
| Application | Description |
|---|---|
| Speed Download | Mac OS X Download Manager |
Windows
| Application | Description |
|---|---|
| Free Download Manager | GPL download manager |
| Orbit Downloader | A download manager that can also be run under GNU/Linux using Wine |
| GetRight | |
| Net Transport |
Other clients available for Mac OS, Windows, and Unix not mentioned here.
Example usage of aria2
Going by the example above, to download an openSUSE Leap 15.5 ISO image, all you need to do is passing the URL to aria2c:
aria2c https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.5/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.5-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso
This will automatically detect the presence of the respective .meta4 file. Alternatively you can pass a URL pointing directly to a Metalink file:
aria2c https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.5/iso/openSUSE-Leap-15.5-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso.meta4
aria2c preallocates space on your filesystem to minimize file fragmentation - it may take a minute or two for it to allocate space before the download begins for bigger DVD ISOs, but it will save time later.
Checksums
Metalinks can contain full file checksum information which will automatically be verified with aria2, DownThemAll!, Free Download Manager, GetRight, wxDownload Fast, Orbit, and Speed Download. openSUSE Metalinks also contain repair information to fix errors that may occur during download, but only aria2 0.10.1 and higher currently support this.
If your Metalink program doesn't support this, and you want to be sure that the Metalink transfer did not contain any errors and matches official ISOs, you should compare this number for your own ISO image to checksums listed on download.opensuse.org.
See in the SDB article Download help, section Checksums for an explanation how to do that.
Should you need to repair a broken download, there are instructions at Download help, section Repairing a Download.