Re: approx: infinite loop during update, importing

[Sylvain Le Gall <gildor@debian.org>]

On 29-07-2009, whollygoat@letterboxes.org <whollygoat@letterboxes.org> wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:09 +0000, "Sylvain Le Gall" <gildor@debian.org>
> wrote:
>> On 28-07-2009, whollygoat@letterboxes.org <whollygoat@letterboxes.org>
>> wrote:
>> > I've two questions re approx version 3.3.0 on 
>> > lenny i386.  The first is, anybody else get
>> > caught in an infinite loop updating the Packages
>> > files?  I've tried from localhost and a remote
>> > machine.  On both machines, running "aptitude
>> > update" causes the Packages file to start 
>> > downloading (you can watch it grow with repeated
>> > "find /var/cache/approx -type -f -ls"), then
>> > after awhile the file disappears, and a few
>> > seconds later appears once more continuing
>> > to grow until it disappears again.  In short, it
>> > ain't working for me.
>> >
>> 
>> Using approx since three years, never seen such a behavior.
>> 
>> - you can download from the machine hosting approx the Package file,
>>   from internet without problem (e.g. using curl).
>
> If I switch /etc/apt/sources.list back to pointing directly to
> a debian mirror, the file downloads just fine.  This is true
> both from an remote machine, and from the machine on which I
> am trying to build the approx package proxy.  It is only
> when the sources.list files (on the remote machine, or on
> the machine hosting the approx repository) that the weird
> incomplete download loop happens.
>

You can try using "curl http://.../Packages..."; from the machine
hosting approx, even if it sounds weird it can give you hints on what is
happening (I say curl because approx use curl). If the problem is at the
download level, there is probably a problem with curl from this specific
computer. The same problem can disappear using apt/wget/iceweasel/...
from the same machine. 

Another point is to look at the log in /var/log/* to see what happens
when the problem appears. You will probably find there some valuable
information (error messages...).

Regards,
Sylvain Le Gall