Package: apt-cacher
Version: 1.5.5
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable


When upstream server is caught mid-sync and apt-cacher downloads only
a partial file,
apt-get on client identifies it as a MD5Sum mismatch error.

Without apt-cacher, this is easily handled- one simply runs "apt-get
update && apt-get install $pkgs" again.

With apt-cacher, the the partial file continues to be returned,
resulting in a "stuck" condition in the
clients.

The code at issue appears to be...

            if (-f $complete_file) {
                # not much to do if complete
                # Possibly checksum cached file before delivery
                $cache_status = "HIT";
                debug_message("$cache_status");
            }

... in /usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.

Apparently apt-cacher assumes that a file downloaded with good status
is complete, which makes it unusable for common situations, such as...

  - security bulletin- update package xx (people run apt-get update,
catch mirror in mid-update and are stuck)
  - new release- many people run apt-get update on stable as mirrors
are still in mid-sync
  - rapidly-changing repositories such as testing, or worse, sid

And when it happens, apt-cacher appears to be stuck until the size or
md5sum changes, i.e. for days or weeks.  I expect most people who hit
this just give up and uninstall apt-cacher.

Workaround is to move cached packages out of the way, e.g....

   # for f in $(find /var/cache/apt-cacher/ -type f | grep "$pkg"); do
mv $f $f..junk; done

That forces a MISS and a re-download.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-2-686-smp (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=locale: Cannot
set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages apt-cacher depends on:
ii  bzip2                         1.0.3-6    high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  libwww-perl                   5.805-1    WWW client/server library for Perl
ii  perl                          5.8.8-7    Larry Wall's Practical Extraction

apt-cacher recommends no packages.

-- debconf information:

-- 
Best Regards.
Anthony Godshall



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