on Fri, Nov 16, 2001 at 12:10:27PM -0800, Brian Nelson (nelson@bignachos.com) wrote:
> Craig Dickson <crdic@yahoo.com> writes:
>
> > Noah Meyerhans wrote:
> >
> > > This is occurring because you're trying to update your system while the
> > > mirror is itself updating its archive.
> > >
> > > In the Debian mirroring scheme, Packages files often end up being
> > > updated before the actual package files. So it's not uncommon for a
> > > Packages file to refer to foo_1.2.3-1_i386.deb before that package
> > > actually exists in the archive.
> >
> > I suppose this is because the mirroring software doesn't understand that
> > the package list's usefulness is dependent on the packages actually
> > being there. Isn't there some way to ensure that the package list is the
> > last thing updated for each section of the repository, by suitably
> > configuring the software? I can't possibly be the first person to think
> > of this, can I?
>
> If the packages are 404, the older Packages.gz list won't be valid
> either.
Not if the older packages aren't deleted until the last step of the
upgrade:
- Update new packages.
- Save new Packages.gz files to temporary location.
- Move new Packages.gz files to permanent location (overwriting old
Packages.gz files).
- Delete obsoleted package files.
This would make updates atomic.
> > Sid is generally updated every single day, so, from what you're
> > saying, every single day there is a period of time, of whatever
> > duration, when apt-get update/upgrade will fail. This is not good.
> > The package repository should always be logically consistent from
> > the user's perspective.
> >
> > I run into this problem probably at least once a week, so either my luck
> > has been bad far beyond the limits of probability, or these brief
> > inconsistencies aren't nearly as brief as you seem to think.
>
> Jeez, if you're running sid, you really should follow the devel list,
> in which case you would have read the discussion about this yesterday.
> One dev said the ftp-master went down during the sync, another was
> looking for problems with rsync.
I subscribe to devel, but read it rarely (high traffic, hard to find
what's relevant). It's usually easier to use it as I am now -- if
there's a problem, find the relevant discussion in devel.
The 404 problem has existed for a long time -- though not to quite the
extent it's been of late. I cron my apt-get updates and save the job
output emails, with records dating to January, 2000. I found a number
of errors in August, only one in September, several in October, and Nov
1, 3, 4, 5, 7-12, and 15th. The problem appears to be getting worse.
Peace.
--
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