[Bug 1607535] Re: ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 fails to install core fonts and should be updated to version 3.6 from Debian

[Robin]

Brian, thanks for looking.

The real problem here is that downloading the font files from
Sourceforge has sometimes worked, and sometimes not.

In true "Read the code, Luke" vein, the difference between versions 3.4 (Ubuntu) and 3.6 (Debian) is that in Ubuntu 3.4 the base path for the download URI (in the rules file) is:
URLROOT = http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/

but in Debian 3.6 the download URI (in the update-ms-fonts file) is:
URLROOTS="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/
	http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/
	http://dfn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/
	http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/
	http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/
	http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/
	http://ufpr.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/
	http://internode.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/
	http://voxel.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/
	http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/corefonts/"

The download test that you suggested runs fine today, but would not have
done so a few months ago. Others have suggested that this is due to how
advertisements are/have been presented by Sourceforge.

In a nutshell, version 3.6 is apparently more robust against download
problems than 3.4. Since 2014 there have been download problems
reported, though today, 2016-10-07, such problems are not manifesting
themselves. Running wget from the command line gets the interesting
response:

<<stuff deleted>>
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: http://freefr.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the%20fonts/final/andale32.exe [following]
<<…and then the file is retrieved>>

One might assume that the freefr.dl.sourceforge.net URI indicates that
the files are provided free from any interference. (I was unable to
track down any specifics on this.)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1607535

Title:
  ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 fails to install core fonts
  and should be updated to version 3.6 from Debian

Status in msttcorefonts package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  As noted in
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/msttcorefonts/+bug/1371783/comments/45,
  the current 3.4 version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer searches for the
  font files in an incorrect network location. The consequence of this
  is that the core fonts are never installed.

  The Debian (upstream) version 3.6 of ttf-mscorefonts-installer
  searches for the font files in the correct network location, and will
  successfully install the core fonts.

  This problem occurs with Ubuntu 16.04 as of July 2016. (And with
  earlier versions, including current LTS.)

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