[Bug 1750625] Re: update misinterprets 304 response on Packages.gz

[Julian Andres Klode]

I guess that's good to know that it does not really work without a
release file now anyway, it is a good argument for removing support for
such repos completely. I made a plan a year or two ago, but have not
acted on it yet :/

Please add a Release file. It gives you download progress, hash checks,
and avoids all kinds of tries for files that don't exist. Then sign it
so apt can verify it fetched it correctly, which is beneficial even in a
trusted environment.

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Title:
  update misinterprets 304 response on Packages.gz

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Description:	Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
  Release:	16.04

  ii  apt                              1.2.24                                      amd64        commandline package manager
  ii  apt-transport-https              1.2.24                                      amd64        https download transport for APT
  ii  apt-utils                        1.2.24                                      amd64        package management related utility programs
  ii  libapt-inst2.0:amd64             1.2.24                                      amd64        deb package format runtime library
  ii  libapt-pkg5.0:amd64              1.2.24                                      amd64        package management runtime library

  Expected behaviour:

  If apt-get gets a 304 Not Modified when requesting Packages.gz, it
  should ignore the package list (i.e., there's no update).

  Observed behaviour:

  Added a local repository to
  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/instafreight_php.list:

  > deb [arch=amd64 trusted=yes] http://ubuntu/instafreight xenial php

  The first time running apt-get update succeeds; in addition,
  apache.log shows:

  > 10.0.4.72 - - [20/Feb/2018:12:01:39 -0500] "GET
  /instafreight/dists/xenial/php/binary-amd64/Packages.gz HTTP/1.1" 200
  745 "-" "Debian APT-HTTP/1.3 (1.2.24)"

  I am able to install packages from that repo without error.

  Running apt-get a 2nd time succeeds. apache.log doesn't show a request
  for Packages.gz

  Running apt-get a 3rd time, apache.log shows:

  > 10.0.4.72 - - [20/Feb/2018:12:04:45 -0500] "GET
  /instafreight/dists/xenial/php/binary-amd64/Packages.gz HTTP/1.1" 304
  124 "-" "Debian APT-HTTP/1.3 (1.2.24)"

  However, on the console where I ran apt-get, the corresponding output
  is:

  > Err:15 http://ubuntu/instafreight xenial/php amd64 Packages
  >   404  Not Found
  > ...
  > E: Failed to fetch http://ubuntu/instafreight/dists/xenial/php/binary-amd64/Packages.gz  404  Not Found
  > E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

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