Apt's sources.list has line-length limit 299

["Jameson C. Burt" <jameson@coost.com>]

"apt-get update"
hangs with no response when I add a line anywhere in
   /etc/apt/sources.list
that is greater than 299 characters.

Specifically, I added the following 308-character commented line to aid my choice of Debian sites
[the line-continuation characters were not originally present and this
had at most one contiguous space],
# fping  -c 3   ftp.egr.msu.edu  carroll.aset.psu.edu \
   mirror.cs.wisc.edu  mirror.csit.fsu.edu   umn.dl.sourceforge.net \
   unc.dl.sourceforge.net  telia.dl.sourceforge.net  debian.teleglobe.net \
   mirrors.xmission.com  ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu  debian.uchicago.edu \
   debian.fifi.org  ftp.silug.org  debian.tod.net
After removing the last "debian.tod.net", this line had but 292
characters, so  "apt-get update" would no longer hang. 

I run Debian woody 3.0, with all packages upgraded as of 9/26/2002,
including apt version 0.5.4 .

Oh, I see this remains an outstanding apt bug-report filed May 13, 2002,
   #146846


-- 
Jameson C. Burt, NJ9L   Fairfax, Virginia, USA
jameson@coost.com       http://www.coost.com
(202) 690-0380 (work)