Re: wip/libreoffice or misc/openoffice?

[Mayuresh <mayuresh%acm.org@localhost>]

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 12:21:13PM +0100, Thomas Klausner wrote:
> If you have download problems, try setting FAILOVER_FETCH:
> # make help topic=FAILOVER_FETCH
> ===> mk/defaults/mk.conf (keywords: FAILOVER_FETCH):
> #FAILOVER_FETCH=
> # Perform a checksum at "make fetch" time.  If the checksum doesn't
> # match the stored value, try to retrieve the file from the next site
> # in the list
> # Possible:  defined, not defined
> # Default: not defined

Having to download again is the problem. It's not only about automating 
re-download.

Above would be useful if a faulty download is due to data getting corrupt
in transit. The problems I faced are more due to faulty interface of
download site and were repeatable (for me).

The site was ibiblio in the last instance. I have kept the faulty
downloads with me if someone wants to take a look at initial part of the
file. As I mentioned it begins with a lot of html text followed by the
binary data. I speculate, the URL pkgsrc directs to has contents meant for
interactive download which perhaps auto-redirects to the actual file.
Hence the downloaded file has some html followed by binary data. The size
matches because download tool accepts only up-to size no of bytes.

IMO, a faulty download (of above kind) being possible, in itself should be  
seen as an issue in pkgsrc infrastructure. May be URLs need a correction, 
or those sites that do not allow non-interactive download should not be  
used etc.

I had logged a PR, but maintainers didn't face the issue, perhaps because
choice of mirror is very dynamic.

Mayuresh.