Debian Bug report logs - #479350
apt-get does not follow redirects over http

Toggle useless messages

Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: zeridon <vvitkov@gmail.com>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: apt-get does not follow redirects over http

Date: Sun, 04 May 2008 14:55:59 +0300

Package: apt-get
Severity: wishlist

apt-get does not support redirects if using the http method for data transfer.

This could be very usefull feature.

The reason for submission is that i am tasked with moving a mirror (not official debian mirror, just a specialised 
one) to a new machine and i want to do it with minimal impact on the userbase. The basic idea was to setup another 
mirror on a different machine, temporary redirect all requests and then mangle with the dns records to point where 
they has to be.

Another usefull situation is if a mirror is overloaded and there is a backup somehow (geolocation for example) to 
transfer part of the load to other machines.

Yes i am aware there are clustering technologies that can be used, also maybe apt-proxy but in my oppinion this is 
suboptimal.

regards


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-6-amd64
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_US.UTF-8)

Message #10 received at 479350@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>

To: zeridon <vvitkov@gmail.com>, 479350@bugs.debian.org

Cc: control@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#479350: apt-get does not follow redirects over http

Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 13:19:59 +0100

reassign 479350 apt
thanks

On Sun, May 04, 2008 at 02:55:59PM +0300, zeridon wrote:
> Package: apt-get
> Severity: wishlist
> 
> apt-get does not support redirects if using the http method for data
> transfer.
> 
> This could be very usefull feature.

I understand that the reason this isn't supported is that it caused
problems when mirrors were run on servers with the Apache mod_speling
module enabled; users ended up getting redirected to the wrong package.

Perhaps the right answer is to support only certain redirects; for
example, apt could support redirects provided that the file name part of
the URL remains the same, so for example a redirect from
http://foo.example.org/debian/pool/main/b/base-files/base-files_4.0.1_i386.deb
to
http://bar.example.org/debian-mirror/pool/main/b/base-files/base-files_4.0.1_i386.deb
would be allowed, but a redirect from the same URL to
http://foo.example.org/debian/pool/main/b/base-files/base-files_4.0.2_i386.deb
would not.

> The reason for submission is that i am tasked with moving a mirror
> (not official debian mirror, just a specialised one) to a new machine
> and i want to do it with minimal impact on the userbase. The basic
> idea was to setup another mirror on a different machine, temporary
> redirect all requests and then mangle with the dns records to point
> where they has to be.

Of course, you can still do this with low impact by changing DNS records
and running both mirrors in parallel until the TTL expires. It just has
to not involve HTTP redirects at the moment, that's all.

Cheers,

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@debian.org]

Message #19 received at 479350@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: David Greaves <david@dgreaves.com>

To: 479350@bugs.debian.org

Subject: apt-get does not follow redirects over http

Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:19:07 +0100

It appears there is a patch for this bug:
  http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/apt/ubuntu/revision/1688

Would it be reasonable to apply it to Debian's apt?

David

Message #24 received at 479350-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org>

To: David Greaves <david@dgreaves.com>, 479350-done@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#479350: apt-get does not follow redirects over http

Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:06:16 +0200

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 12:19:07PM +0100, David Greaves wrote:
> It appears there is a patch for this bug:
>   http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/apt/ubuntu/revision/1688
> 
> Would it be reasonable to apply it to Debian's apt?

That patch got applied to 0.7.21 (currently in debian/testing).

Cheers,
 Michael
 
> David
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to deity-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
> 

Send a report that this bug log contains spam.