Download Metalinks with these programs...

GetRight FlashGot aria2
Speed Download wxDownload Fast FDM
Orbit SmartFTP Phex
yum DownThemAll! Firefox extension Celerius

...Programs in progress...

Ready to use Metalinks on your site?

Check out the the Metalink booklet and "Making Metalinks" article.


Planned future clients:


If you like Metalink, request support in these sites or clients on their forums or bug trackers:

Applications
Sites/Projects/Distributions

Other Metalink clients and tools are in development. Please email us if you create one, so we can link to them here.

Specification, Client Requirements for Implementation

Metalink is a simple XML (text) format. Download one and open it with a text editor, & most of it should be self explanatory. If you want you can read the long, boring Metalink Download Description Format (.meta4 files) defined in RFC 5854 (Relax NG Compact Schema inline, XSD Schema). RFC 6249: Metalink/HTTP: Mirrors and Hashes describes a way to pass mirrors and hashes in HTTP headers, along with using Metalink/XML files for error recovery.

The older Metalink 3.0 (.metalink files) specification: Plain text - OpenDocument - PDF - Schema. [An updated version of older the specification (found at Metalink_3.0_Spec3draftX) is in progress. Please post comments or questions on our Discussion mailing list.]

Details on the differences between versions (RFC vs Metalink 3.0) can be found at the Internet Draft wiki page, along with clients that have been updated.

If your favorite client can already read XML (Atom/RSS/Podcasts) then adding Metalink support should be relatively easy.

Minimum & optional requirements for integration into clients:

If you'd like to help out...

Join the Metalink Announcements and Discussion (also on Gmane) mailing lists. You can also find us on IRC at #metalink on Freenode (sometimes). If you have any questions, ideas, or just want to introduce yourself, write on our Discussion mailing list. If you feel like coding, we have a list of small & large ideas that we could use your help on.

Google Groups Subscribe to Metalink Announcements
Email:
Browse Archives at groups.google.com

If you find Metalink useful, contact sites (Distributions) and programs and ask them to add support. Blog about it. Ask distributions to package and include the clients. If you're a developer, helping to add Metalink support to Open Source programs would be a huge help. Check out our ideas/getting started page!

We hope Metalink will be useful to Free and Open Source software. It was designed for community projects that use multiple mirrors and P2P. We invite other Download Managers, Web browsers, BitTorrent clients, and other P2P programs to support Metalink.

If you would like more information, we can be reached at:

m3talink

Metalink Project Contributors

Ant Bryan Darius Liktorius Manuel Subredu Bram Neijt
Ant Bryan
Available for Hire
(Stuff, Sundry Things, and Dreams)
Darius Liktorius
(Site, initial FlashGot patch, Generator)
Manuel Subredu
(Simba, RoPkg::Metalink / Metalink @ Packages Resources)
Bram Neijt
(Metalink tools, Metamirrors, Bouncer patch, Tons O' Stuff),
Giorgio Maone Hampus Wessman Manolo Valdes Nick Dominguez
Giorgio Maone
(FlashGot)
Hampus Wessman
(Metalink Editor, Metadl - Wubi download plugin)
Manolo Valdes
(KGet Developer)
Nick Dominguez
(Master Songsmith, Design Guru, Visiting Lecturer, Site Design)
Josh Colbert Danny Ayers Per Øyvind Karlsen Dr. Peter Poeml
Josh Colbert
(Master Songsmith and Storyteller, v2 Gen, Schema, Docs)
Danny Ayers
(RDF, GRDDL goodness)
Per Øyvind Karlsen
(Geo McFly)
Peter Poeml
(openSUSE download redirector aka the MirrorBrain)

bf (Logo), Paul Burkhead, Michael Burford (GetRight), Tatsuhiro Tsujikawa (aria2), Max Velasques (wxDownload Fast), Yazsoft (Speed Download), FDM Team, Nils Maier (DownThemAll), Orbit Downloader Team, Urs Wolfer (KGet developer), Mathias Berchtold (SmartFTP), Neil McNab (Appupdater), Arne Babenhauserheide (Phex Metalink export), Ruben Kerkhof (MirrorManager patch, Schema), Tom Mainville, Judd Vinet, Patrick Ruckstuhl, Ross Smith, Dan Fandrich, Dan Brickley, Phoenix and TheWorld Browser Team, Hayden Legendre (Retriever Download Manager), Mike Wells (aria2fe), Nicolas Alvarez, Rene Leonhardt (Metalink Library for PHP and Python), Nick Carrabba, Troy Sobotka, Corey Farwell, Matt Domsch.