[arch-general] Mirrors out of date

[Mark Lee]

On Wed, 2014-01-15 at 22:54 +0100, Guus Snijders wrote:
> Op 15 jan. 2014 19:17 schreef "Mark Lee" <mark at markelee.com> het volgende:
> >
> [...]
> > > > There is a file called lastsync. It is read <
> > > > http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/archlinux/lastsync>
> > >
> > > Yes, I see that there's a check script but what is it? I'd like to know
> > > how that link calculates percent synchronization for a particular
> > > mirror. I ask this because there have been instances when a mirror is
> > > claimed to be 100% synchronized but isn't.
> > >
> 
> >
> > Oh I see it now, so "completion" is only a percentage of the number of
> > times the checkscript is successfully run on a particular mirror without
> > disconnecting.
> >
> > Is the lastsync value a hash value or temporal?
> 
> As Thomas' message explains, it's a timestamp. A very nice solution if you
> ask me.
> 
> mvg, Guus

Salutations,

I see. My concern is regarding mirrors that aren't fully up to date
(I've encountered the situation before and it wasn't a packaging error
at the time) and reporting this fact to the user. Instead of using a
time stamp, why not use a cryptohash of a list of the files installed as
the lastsync value. Pacman -Syy could then check the hash value (it
grabs from the tier 1 mirror) and check it against the current mirrors
it's using.

Regards,
Mark
-- 
Mark Lee <mark at markelee.com>