General
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This resource (packages.microsoft.com) is a collection of package repositories and related content (i.e. config files and keys).
This content is public by design.

Supported Interfaces
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The resources on packages.microsoft.com are meant for consumption by Linux packaging clients (apt, dnf, yum, zypper, etc).
In general, if you're just using a Linux packaging client to download/install packages, then you can stop reading here :)
This section summarizes which resources are intentionally static (and thus "safe" to depend on), which are subject to change,
and some recommendations for advanced usage.

Static/Supported Resources
- The paths to each repo's *metadata* (i.e. repomd.xml or Release/Packages for deb files) are static/supported.
- The paths to config files located under /config are static/supported.
- the paths to the key files under /keys are static/supported.

Resources that are subject to change
- The HTML/directory browsing interface is subject to change, and is not guaranteed to exist in perpetuity.
  - This is enabled only for interactive web browsing, and is not a stable or supported API.
  - This includes the underlying structure of the HTML as well as the timestamp and filesize presented.
- The paths to individual packages are subject to change.
  - The repo metadata is the source of truth for a given package path if/when a change occurs.
- Repositories often have multiple copies of the same data in different formats. There's no guarantee that each format will be supported in perpetuity.
  - Deb repos *may* have Packages, Packages.bz2, Packages.gz, etc.
  - Rpm repos *may* have primary.xml.gz or primary.sqlite.bz2, etc
  - Package managers will generally prefer one of the above formats but accept a wide array of formats.
- The clamav signatures under /clamav will be deprecated in 2023.

Recommendations
- When possible, use the configuration files under /config and use standard Linux package managers.
- If you need to programmatically "find" a given package, without using a package manager, be sure to parse the metadata - *not* the html.
- Avoid depending on individual metadata files (i.e. primary.sqlite.gz, Packages.bz2), as these are subject to change.
  - Package managers handle this gracefully, by trying alternate files/formats.

Support/Contact
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To report general issues or request support, please refer to https://github.com/microsoft/linux-package-repositories/issues
To report security issues, please refer to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc