on Fri, Nov 16, 2001 at 12:10:27PM -0800, Brian Nelson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > Craig Dickson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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. -- Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Home of the brave http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ Land of the free Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! http://www.freesklyarov.org Geek for Hire http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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