jigdo and unofficial Debian images

[<tpc@csua.berkeley.edu>]

hi Richard, after trying all day to bend jigdo to my will, I have to throw
up my hands in exasperation and tell you jigdo is not ready for primetime.
I understand you are a volunteer and as such what you've attempted to
create is commendable, but what you've told us jigdo is intended to do and
what it actually does are entirely different things.  The most common
problem with jigdo I've found is that what is specified in the .jigdo file
to be downloaded to complete the image is not an accurate reflection of
what actually exists on the corresponding mirror.  For example, when I
used the .jigdo from:

ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/CDROM-Images/debian-unofficial/sid/jigdo/

which was linked from:

http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/#which

to get the Debian Sid ISO image, no matter which corresponding mirror I
specified I got the same error message: "Aaargh - <n> files could not be
downloaded. This should not happen!".  I searched the web to figure out a
solution, and when I tried to rsync my temporary iso with an actual iso, I
got multiple error messages because the rsync syntax for the server is
different from the syntax posted at:

http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/#faq

I tried:

rsync --verbose --progress rsync://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/CDROM-Images/debian-unofficial/sid/sid-i386-1.iso
debian-20040601-i386-binary-1.iso

I got:

You can access the archive using 'rsync' program like rsync -av ftp.fsn.hu::[Module]/path/to/the/files

with no explanation of what [Module] is in reference to.  I tried
"Debian", "Sid", "Unstable", in place of the "Module" all to no avail.  I
saw your post:

http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-cd@lists.debian.org/msg06700.html

where you tell a user to try and get the files from the Debian snapshot
mirror, so I compared one of the missing files that could not be
downloaded:

ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/debian/pool/main/m/mutt/mutt_1.5.6-1_i386.deb...No such file `mutt_1.5.6-1_i386.deb'.

with what exists:

http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2004/06/10/debian/pool/main/m/mutt/mutt_1.5.6-20040523+2_i386.deb

I guess I could edit the .jigdo file to reflect what actually exists, but
how am I to generate the md5:

2Vz6uhSEq3fld7RfFss-dg=Debian:pool/main/m/mutt/mutt_1.5.6-1_i386.deb

After failing to get the Debian Sid ISO image with jigdo, I was
able to download the Debian Sarge ISO image with jigdo, but this only
works with an official .jigdo and mirror.  I humbly request that jigdo compare what's in the
.jigdo with what exists on the mirror and let you know in advance that
some files cannot be downloaded so as to prevent others from experiencing
what I had to go through.