----- Forwarded message from David Whyte <david@thewhytehouse.org> ----- Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:39:05 +1000 From: David Whyte <david@thewhytehouse.org> To: ecc@cmu.edu Subject: Re: Configuring approx cache size Hi Eric, I think that I may have another suggestion for you to add to your list. For a while I have been using approx very successfully to save on precious bandwidth to my ISP using the following line in approx.conf: ubuntu http://ubuntu.apt-get.eu/ubuntu ...which would correctly redirect for both Fiesty and Gutsy clients that were configured to ping my approx cache for updates. This week, my ISP has launched a local mirror for Gutsy and Hardy, however, they do not include the multiverse repository. This is good, because the mirror does not count towards my bandwidth usage, however, it is bad because I can't seem to configure approx to use the ISP mirror by default, but fail over to my official Ubuntu mirror when a respository is not available. Therefore, I think perhaps being able to have an approx.conf file as follows: ubuntu http://mirror.pacific.net.au/ubuntu/ ubuntu http://ubuntu.apt-get.eu/ubuntu ...where approx will fail over to each one, would be a perfect solution for getting around the fact that my ISP mirror does not include multiverse or any of the pre-gutsy repositories. What are your thoughts? Regards, David----- End forwarded message -----
I like the idea of allowing multiple fallback repositories. It was actually the one criteria I had for an apt-proxy replacement that approx failed, but overall I liked it so much I used approx anyway. It seems a lot faster and is certainly much more stable than apt-proxy. Thanks, JP
Hi Eric, I just started using approx. I'm really impressed. It's a great piece of work. Thanks! Here's a question: Is it permissible/possible to have two (or more) different mirrors listed as servers for the same set of archives? for example, my approx server's approx.conf file has security http://security.debian.org/ volatile http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile/ debian http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ but the University has a fast Internet2 link so I'd like to use that to connect when I can. e.g. I'd like to add debian http://debian.cs.binghamton.edu/debian/ debian http://debian.lcs.mit.edu/debian/ before the one for ftp.us.d.o and have those be used by preference unless our link to I2 is down, in which case have it switch over to the more generic ftp.us . Is this possible now? Could it be added as a feature in a future release? Thanks! Rick
The feature requested in this bug would be useful to me to enable nicer support of old releases which have moved to archive.debian.org. For example, I currently have approx instances which need to supply etch lenny and squeeze. I have resorted to configuring them like this: debian http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian debian-security http://security.debian.org/debian-security debian-archive http://archive.debian.org/debian debian-security-archive http://archive.debian.org/debian-security And then symlinking debian-archive to debian within the cache directory, and putting up with the need to propagate this special-casing in the clients' source.lists.
I have a supplementary wishlist. I don't want only a fallback for another mirror of the same (partial) archive. Let me explain my need. I use approx to cache access to the Kali repositories. Kali is based on Debian and reuses the same .deb/.dsc etc. I do have a local Debian mirror and 95% of my downloads from Kali do in fact download some files that I already have locally in my Debian mirror. It would be nice if approx could just download everything from "dists" on the Kali servers but lookup all files on the local mirror when they are there. Here's what it could look like in approx.conf: kali [restrict_to=pool ignore-404] file:///srv/mirror/debian http://http.kali.org When using the "file" URL, approx would not cache the file, instead it would just use the local file. With a remote URL, it would just download it. Cheers,