My question rises when browsing Alma’s AppStream directory:
Index of /almalinux/8.7/AppStream/x86_64/os/Packages/,
which is totally flat layout, that is, not like other distributions,
the packages are placed within its dedicated subdirectory,
For example, for the packages: nodejs-xxx.rpm, netcat-xxx.rpm, nmap-xxx.rpm, mesa-xxx.rpm, three of them precede with letter n,
one precedes with letter m.
On other distributions like Rocky or Debian, the former will place them
in Packages/n directory, the latter in Packages/m directory. But
for Alma, packages they all are placed in Packages/ directory.
This might be totally fine for DNF remote query, except when
browsering the web page of Packages on a browser, it will request
the whole list of all available packages in repository, not only does this
have an impact on online browsing for users, but also cause unnecessay
disk IO on server, if the mirror server is equipped with constraint
hardware resources, this might have an impact on all users that use
that mirror, more slower loading or even downtime.
Many OS have be aware of this issue, and have taken actions, like
Debian, Rocky or others similar, they mitigated this by creating one
more layer between packages and the packages’ root directory. Or like
FreeBSD, they just blocked the online browsing function directory:
247998 – pkg.freebsd.org subfolders indexes are forbidden.
So I wonder the reason why Alma choose an unusual path?