Hello,

It would be nice if apt-file would work from the start by trying to run
"apt-file update" in postinst. Of course, it would be nice to fail
elegantly if the Contents file can't be found.

Hi,

The following patch is used in Ubuntu to try and run apt-file
update in postinst, while failing gracefully, and trying to
avoid it if there is no network access to the first mirror. It
should go someway to have apt-file work straight away for most
people. Please consider applying it.

Thanks,

James

diff -pruN 2.0.8.2/debian/apt-file.postinst
2.0.8.2ubuntu2/debian/apt-file.postinst
--- 2.0.8.2/debian/apt-file.postinst	1970-01-01 01:00:00.000000000 +0100
+++ 2.0.8.2ubuntu2/debian/apt-file.postinst	2007-06-17 00:13:15.000000000 +0100
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+set -e
+
+case "$1" in
+    configure)
+	ping -q -c 3 `grep ^deb\  /etc/apt/sources.list | head -1 | \
+		cut -s -d\  -f2 | cut -d/ -f3` > /dev/null 2>&1 && \
+		apt-file update || true
+    ;;
+
+    abort-upgrade|abort-remove|abort-deconfigure)
+    ;;
+
+    *)
+        echo "postinst called with unknown argument \`$1'" >&2
+        exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+#DEBHELPER#
+
+exit 0

See also https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt-file/+bug/176757

/* era */

However some people would not expect a sudden big download...

Control: tags -1 wontfix

Hi,

I agree (in principle) that it would be nice if apt-file would work
immediately on install.

Though with apt-file now using apt's acquire system, we would end up
calling apt while apt is running.  This is not possible atm. and I will
therefore tag this wontfix for now.

Please note that even if it was possible to (reliably) run apt within a
postinst, I am not necessarily convinced this we should fetch Contents
files during installation.  However, there is not much point in looking
at that while the above is blocking it.

Thanks,
~Niels