[SOLVED] Recovering from interrupted update of mirror

astrogeek · 09-29-2013, 12:05 PM

I have been using slackkg to follow current since 14.0, but still fairly new to that mindset.

I use Eric's mirror-slackware-current.sh script to update a local mirror, then use slackpkg across my LAN to update and install.

Last night I was syncing my local mirror using...

Code:

SLACKROOTDIR=/path/to/sw-current/tree ./mirror-slackware-current.sh -f -o NONE

... when my internet connection went south. At first it became very slow so I let it continue for about an hour (Sep 25-29 should have been then only updates!). Finally it stopped completely so I killed it.

Later I restarted it and the internet went down again so I killed it and went to bed.

This left my local mirror in an indeterminate state. I am guessing that rsync is smart enough to pick up where it left off, but I am less clear about how the ChangeLog.txt is used to identify the updates in the script.

So I manually edited the local ChangeLog.txt to remove the Sep 25 and 29 sections, then ran the update again. It appeares to have worked normally and completed within a few minutes (typical for my connection).

I am looking for reassurance that my local repo should be fixed by these actions before using it to update a machine.

How do seasoned Slackers recover from interrupted mirror updates? Is there anything else I should do to be sure?

TIA

willysr · 09-29-2013, 12:14 PM

since it's using rsync, no worries about interrupted update. It will tries to sync again

ponce · 09-29-2013, 12:15 PM

if I have understood correctly how Eric's script works, after having verified if there's differences between the local and the remote ChangeLog.txt it runs an rsync in either case that will do a sync between the remote and the local folder, so you should have an up-to-date local mirror at the end, no matter if it got interrupted in a previous attempt or not.

EDIT: ups, willy beated me

astrogeek · 09-29-2013, 01:02 PM

Thanks willysr and ponce.

I thought so but wanted reassurance from my betters before borking a machine.

Until now I have always been paranoid about bulk updates and did everything with installpkg/upgradepkg, one at a time. My experience using slackpkg with local mirror thus far has been flawless I want to keep that up if possible!

TobiSGD · 09-29-2013, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrogeek

How do seasoned Slackers recover from interrupted mirror updates?

The answer for me is pretty easy: I don't use Eric's script, I just use a simple rsync command that does not check for changes in the Changelog.txt. This way it doesn't matter if the mirroring is interrupted, rsync is handling that just fine.

Alien Bob · 09-29-2013, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

The answer for me is pretty easy: I don't use Eric's script, I just use a simple rsync command that does not check for changes in the Changelog.txt. This way it doesn't matter if the mirroring is interrupted, rsync is handling that just fine.

There is a reason why I check on changes in the ChangeLog.txt file. When you want to maintain your own local mirror and schedule a daily check for updates, it is much friendlier to the remote Internet server if you check a single file, than to blindly run rsync on the complete directory tree.
It's not just you who is downloading this stuff, you know.

Users of my mirror-slackware-current.sh script should realize that it has a help function explaining the possible parameters to the script:

Code:

$ mirror-slackware-current.sh -h
...
  -f            Force sync and the creation of new ISO image(s)
                even if no update of the ChangeLog.txt was found.
                This is how you resume after an aborted attempt.
                Note: this will also create any missing local
                      directories needed for the mirror.
...

Eric

TobiSGD · 09-29-2013, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien Bob

There is a reason why I check on changes in the ChangeLog.txt file. When you want to maintain your own local mirror and schedule a daily check for updates, it is much friendlier to the remote Internet server if you check a single file, than to blindly run rsync on the complete directory tree.
It's not just you who is downloading this stuff, you know.

Code:

>>> time rsync_current.sh
rsync_current.sh  0.10s user 0.12s system 16% cpu 1.376 total

I am pretty sure that the 1.376 seconds load I cause once a day isn't disturbing the mirror that much. Seeing that the mirror I use also hosts Debian, grml, Knoppix, CPAN, CentOS, Gentoo, CCC, Ubuntu, Mozilla, openSuse, XFCE, VLC and kernel mirrors I doubt that the load I generate is even noticed.

By the way, everyone who wants can use my mirror (slackeee.de::slackware) for syncing their own local mirrors, I don't mind that.

astrogeek · 09-29-2013, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien Bob

There is a reason why I check on changes in the ChangeLog.txt file. When you want to maintain your own local mirror and schedule a daily check for updates, it is much friendlier to the remote Internet server if you check a single file, than to blindly run rsync on the complete directory tree.
It's not just you who is downloading this stuff, you know.

Users of my mirror-slackware-current.sh script should realize that it has a help function explaining the possible parameters to the script:

Code:

$ mirror-slackware-current.sh -h
...
  -f            Force sync and the creation of new ISO image(s)
                even if no update of the ChangeLog.txt was found.
                This is how you resume after an aborted attempt.
                Note: this will also create any missing local
                      directories needed for the mirror.
...

Eric

Thanks Eric.

Yes, the excellent help function is what got me going in the first place!

I always run manually so that I know that it all worked, but would not have immediately thought of the consequences of using -f in a scheduled script. Always good to hear the reasons why things work the way they do from the designer himself!

And thanks for the mirror script!