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pacman mirror lists set up

There has been some anomolies with the mirrors that I am drawing from and I am now, for the first time, giving this more thought.

For some reason, I thought pacman automatically updated the mirror list and assumed there was some mechanism for rotating them.  But it is occuring to me that they are more static.

I have installed under /etc/pacman.d

Code: [Select]

flatbush:[ruben]:/etc/pacman.d$ ls -l|grep mir
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   386 Apr 29 21:11 mirrorlist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 61826 Mar  1 20:16 mirrorlist-arch
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 61876 Mar 12 11:32 mirrorlist-arch.pacnew
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  3602 Apr 10 15:48 mirrorlist.pacnew

Until last night mirrorlist was not touched since 2017 and mirrorlist.pacnew was the latest international list.

It seems some regular maintenance is needed here.  There was a cluestick in mirrorlist.pacnew

Quote
# Artix mirrors
# Use rankmirrors(1) to get a list of the fastest mirrors for your location,
# e.g.: rankmirrors -v -n 5 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
# Then put the resulting list on top of this file.

That is not a default install and that comment can use a minor edit to be clear.  mirrorlist is limited and stale.  It makes more sense to running that program off of mirrorlist.pacnew.

MORE importantly though, rankmirrors is not installed and not easy to find with pacman.  I was lucky enough to have someone in irc to tell me it is in "pacman contributions" because searching for pacman -Ss mirrors or pacman -Ss pacman din't make it clear where it is.

Also, it would be nice if the note was explicit as to where to put the new ranked mirror list.

And FWIW, that might not help when trying to change mirrors of omniverse which is hard coded in /etc/pacman.conf


Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #1 –
The mirrorlist is treated as a configuration file, since users can edit it to their preferences.

I never bothered with rankmirrors, and I find it strange that its use is suggested in the config file as if that was the correct way. I set the top few mirrors manually, based mainly on geographical proximity, and sometimes learn by experience that my top choice is not the best. And yes, I do this every time the mirrorlist updates. It's not that bad.

Many users might just leave the mirrorlist as is, which would put unnecessary burden on the default mirrors. Maybe it's easier to tell people to use rankmirrors than to explain how they can manually pick their mirrors. Many new Artix users probably wouldn't know to first check the Arch wiki where everything is explained (or was some 12 years ago when I read it...).
Quote from: mrbrklyn
It makes more sense to running that program off of mirrorlist.pacnew.
This in itself is very true, but on a fresh install there is no .pacnew file, so the comment can't reference that.

Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #2 –
Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
MORE importantly though, rankmirrors is not installed and not easy to find with pacman.  I was lucky enough to have someone in irc to tell me it is in "pacman contributions" because searching for pacman -Ss mirrors or pacman -Ss pacman din't make it clear where it is.
Pacman allows to search which package owns file: pacman -F /path/to/file
ARMtix
If you need to contact me, use email

Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #3 –
Quote from: phoenix_king_rus – on
Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
MORE importantly though, rankmirrors is not installed and not easy to find with pacman.  I was lucky enough to have someone in irc to tell me it is in "pacman contributions" because searching for pacman -Ss mirrors or pacman -Ss pacman din't make it clear where it is.
Pacman allows to search which package owns file: pacman -F /path/to/file


But you have to HAVE the file first.  Am I misunderstanding?

Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #4 –
Quote from: mrbrklyn – on

But you have to HAVE the file first.  Am I misunderstanding?

No, you got it right haha

I agree, the package that provides rankmirrors should be included in that comment since it is not obvious.
 

Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #5 –
Quote from: lotuskip – on
The mirrorlist is treated as a configuration file, since users can edit it to their preferences.

I never bothered with rankmirrors, and I find it strange that its use is suggested in the config file as if that was the correct way. I set the top few mirrors manually, based mainly on geographical proximity, and sometimes learn by experience that my top choice is not the best. And yes, I do this every time the mirrorlist updates. It's not that bad.

Many users might just leave the mirrorlist as is, which would put unnecessary burden on the default mirrors. Maybe it's easier to tell people to use rankmirrors than to explain how they can manually pick their mirrors. Many new Artix users probably wouldn't know to first check the Arch wiki where everything is explained (or was some 12 years ago when I read it...).
Quote from: mrbrklyn
It makes more sense to running that program off of mirrorlist.pacnew.
This in itself is very true, but on a fresh install there is no .pacnew file, so the comment can't reference that.

OK - so, in terms of making this documentation work to an unsuspecting newbie, what is the command to get the mirrorlist.pacnew file?  So that should be run first and then rankmirror on the freshly fetched file.  Then do the first update.  This will take some of the pressure of the default mirrors.  Actually, these instructions should be in the install wiki, docs etc.

Because even though you are right, that one can't run rankmirror on a file that doesn't yet exist, doing it on the default mirrorlist file is still USELESS because it only has (at least in my case) 5 mirrors.  It is a predetermined result.  You are just spinning electrons now.


Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #6 –
Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
But you have to HAVE the file first.  Am I misunderstanding?
No, -F works with remote database (not -Sy one, the -Fy) similarly to -Q
However, you have to know what to search

Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
OK - so, in terms of making this documentation work to an unsuspecting newbie, what is the command to get the mirrorlist.pacnew file?
pacnew files when 1) you update package that owns this file, 2) package is instructed to backup the file and 3) your file differs the one installed by previous version of package. So, if you did change mirrorlist, update will create pacnew file, if not, it will overwrite
ARMtix
If you need to contact me, use email

Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #7 –
Quote from: phoenix_king_rus – on
Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
But you have to HAVE the file first.  Am I misunderstanding?
No, -F works with remote database (not -Sy one, the -Fy) similarly to -Q
However, you have to know what to search

Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
OK - so, in terms of making this documentation work to an unsuspecting newbie, what is the command to get the mirrorlist.pacnew file?
pacnew files when 1) you update package that owns this file, 2) package is instructed to backup the file and 3) your file differs the one installed by previous version of package. So, if you did change mirrorlist, update will create pacnew file, if not, it will overwrite



what is the pacman command to get the updated international mirror list?

Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #8 –
Quote from: phoenix_king_rus – on
Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
But you have to HAVE the file first.  Am I misunderstanding?
No, -F works with remote database (not -Sy one, the -Fy) similarly to -Q
However, you have to know what to search

Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
OK - so, in terms of making this documentation work to an unsuspecting newbie, what is the command to get the mirrorlist.pacnew file?
pacnew files when 1) you update package that owns this file, 2) package is instructed to backup the file and 3) your file differs the one installed by previous version of package. So, if you did change mirrorlist, update will create pacnew file, if not, it will overwrite


It won't overwrite it, but it is also not creating a pacnew file either, even after I removed /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.pacnew

Re: pacman mirror lists set up

Reply #9 –
Quote from: phoenix_king_rus – on
Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
But you have to HAVE the file first.  Am I misunderstanding?
No, -F works with remote database (not -Sy one, the -Fy) similarly to -Q
However, you have to know what to search

I stand corrected! pacman -F rankmirrors does in fact show what package the executable belongs in, even without knowing the exact path.

Still I wouldn't expect someone who isn't familiar with rankmirrors to have this level of familiarity with pacman, to mrbrklyn's point.

Also here's the relevant page from the Arch wiki.