Aminet Index

Purpose

Manages the complete lifecycle of the Aminet INDEX database: fetching INDEX.gz from mirrors, parsing ~84,000 package entries into structured data, caching results for offline use, checking freshness against 24-hour thresholds, and performing incremental updates via RECENT file diffing. Also handles .readme metadata extraction for individual package detail views.

Capabilities

• Fetch INDEX.gz from Aminet mirrors with gzip decompression
• Parse ~84,000 INDEX entries using token-based regex in ~114ms
• ISO-8859-1 decoding via TextDecoder for correct character handling
• JSON cache with INDEX + INDEX.meta.json sidecar for offline access
• K=1x and M=1000x size suffix normalization
• 24-hour freshness detection with configurable thresholds
• RECENT-based incremental merge by fullPath for efficient updates
• Parse .readme files extracting raw headers (lowercase keys, multi-value split on comma+semicolon)
• Barrel file exporting complete public API

Key Modules

src/aminet/index-fetcher.ts

src/aminet/index-parser.ts

src/aminet/readme-parser.ts

src/aminet/index-freshness.ts

Usage Examples

Fetch and parse the INDEX:

import { fetchIndex } from './index-fetcher.js';
import { parseIndex } from './index-parser.js';

const raw = await fetchIndex({ mirrorUrl: 'https://aminet.net' });
const entries = parseIndex(raw);
// entries: PackageEntry[] with ~84,000 items

Check freshness and update incrementally:

import { checkFreshness } from './index-freshness.js';

const result = await checkFreshness({ cacheDir: './cache', maxAgeMs: 86400000 });
if (!result.fresh) {
  // Fetch RECENT, merge new entries by fullPath
}

Parse a .readme file:

import { parseReadme } from './readme-parser.js';

const metadata = parseReadme(readmeText);
// metadata.short, metadata.author, metadata.uploader, metadata.type, etc.

Dependencies

• Node.js

  node:zlib

  for gzip decompression
• Node.js

  node:fs

  for cache persistence
• Aminet mirror network for INDEX.gz and RECENT files

Token Budget Rationale

1.5% budget reflects the 4 modules covering INDEX fetch, parse, freshness, and readme extraction. The ~84,000-entry parsing logic with ISO-8859-1 handling, size suffix normalization, and incremental merge via RECENT requires comprehensive context for correct operation and troubleshooting.