[Bug 898116] [NEW] apt can't deal gracefully with broken mirrors in mirrors.txt

[Job Snijders]

Public bug reported:

I use the mirror://mirrors.ubuntu.com/mirrors.txt trick in
/etc/apt/sources.list, which is an excellent feature since I don't know
where boxes will end up. But if mirrors.txt output contains a mirror
which responds to http requests but is no longer a reasonable up2date
mirror such as http://ubuntu.washdc-linux.com/ubuntu/ (seems to be
squatted ATM) apt-get will throw errors such as these:

W: Failed to fetch
mirror://mirrors.ubuntu.com/mirrors.txt/dists/maverick/Release.gpg
Connection failed [Mirror:  http://ubuntu.washdc-linux.com/ubuntu/]

What I would expect 'apt-get update' to do is to select (randomly)
another mirror from mirrors.txt if it receives unworkable output, or
fall back to countrycode.archive.ubuntu.com or something more graceful.

Tested on: Ubuntu 10.10, x86_64, with apt 0.8.3ubuntu7.3

** Affects: apt (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/898116

Title:
  apt can't deal gracefully with broken mirrors in mirrors.txt

Status in “apt” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I use the mirror://mirrors.ubuntu.com/mirrors.txt trick in
  /etc/apt/sources.list, which is an excellent feature since I don't
  know where boxes will end up. But if mirrors.txt output contains a
  mirror which responds to http requests but is no longer a reasonable
  up2date mirror such as http://ubuntu.washdc-linux.com/ubuntu/ (seems
  to be squatted ATM) apt-get will throw errors such as these:

  W: Failed to fetch
  mirror://mirrors.ubuntu.com/mirrors.txt/dists/maverick/Release.gpg
  Connection failed [Mirror:  http://ubuntu.washdc-linux.com/ubuntu/]

  What I would expect 'apt-get update' to do is to select (randomly)
  another mirror from mirrors.txt if it receives unworkable output, or
  fall back to countrycode.archive.ubuntu.com or something more
  graceful.

  Tested on: Ubuntu 10.10, x86_64, with apt 0.8.3ubuntu7.3

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