12.6.6 FTP Upload File Replacement

You can replace existing files that have already been uploaded by including a directive line replace: true. For example, you might like to provide a README file in the release directory and update it from time to time. The full directive file for that would look like this:

replace: true
version: 1.2
directory: foo
filename: README
comment: replaces an existing README

It is ok if the file to be replaced doesn’t already exist; then the new file is simply added, i.e., the replace directive has no effect.

When an existing file is replaced, the original is archived to a private location. There is no automated or public access to such archived files; if you want to retrieve or view them, please email sysadmin@fsf.org.

We very strongly discourage replacing an actual software release file, such as foo-1.0.tar.gz. Releases should be unique, and forever. If you need to make fixes, make another release. If you have an exigent reason for a particular release file to no longer be available, it can be explicitly archived, as described in the next section.

If you want to make the current release available under a generic name, such as foo-latest.tar.gz, that is better done with symlinks, also as described in the next section.