Subject: Re: [vserver] one-liner /etc/apt/sources.list in guest?
From: Corey Wright <undefined@pobox.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:11:22 -0600

On Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:04:27 +1100
Declan Mullen <declan@jadplace.com> wrote:

> Corey Wright wrote:
> > and don't forget to use a caching/mirroring/saving proxy.  i recently
> > gave up on apt-cache and went with the more generic http-replicator.  a
> > proxy accelerates guest installs, security updates, and even "apt-get
> > update". it's also beneficial for rolling back to a previous package
> > version on debian unstable/testing (as the old version has probably
> > been removed from the archive and using snapshot.debian.net can be a
> > pain). 
> I was thinking of using apt-cacher, what types of problems prompted you 
> to give up on it ?

i'm an idiot!  i meant "apt-proxy".

apt-proxy does not support two clients downloaded the same file
concurrently.  i never knew this because until lately i only ran a single
server.  (all the vserver guests were updated sequentially using a script
executed on the debian host and my ubuntu desktops are updated randomly
enough based on when they are turned on.)  and the version in stable has
been pretty "stable" but sometimes failed/cancelled downloads cause
apt-proxy to hang.  the version in testing (which i run on my workstation,
servicing only my workstation), which will hopefully be the stable version
shortly, hangs once a week or so.  the worst thing is the application is
still running and accepting connections from clients, but not downloading
any files.  but the lack of concurrency (downloading the same file from two
different clients concurrently) was the proverbial "straw that broke the
camel's back".  i created an init script for http-replicator and have been
using it successfully the last month or so without problem.

yeah, there's approx, apt-cacher, etc, but in the end i figured something
that was designed for general use (not specifically apt repositories) would
be simpler and therefor conceivably work better (it does) and have broader
applicability if i needed it (eg fedora & yum, rhel & rhn).  (i've
previously used it experimentally for saving windows update so that they
can later be applied manually if needed. "experimentally" not because there
were problems, but because i don't use windows enough to put it into
"production".)

corey
-- 
undefined@pobox.com