Debian package replication based on hash values

frei_zs

Hey Team,

when developing and testing Debian packages, I sometimes do not increase the version of the package for testing as this sometimes unneccessarily makes version increments higher than needed.

Our internal repo is replicated to an external repo from which most machines download their packages.

I stumbled accross the issue, that the package is uploaded by me to the internal repo, but it is not getting replicated to the external one, if I do not increase the version.

Can the replication be extended to check for a different timestamp / hash value, so packages will be replicated even if their version is the same, but the timestamp is newer, the hash value has changed?

Many thanks!
Frank

atripp

Hi @frei_zs ,

Replication uses the package file's hash value, so "new" package files should be transferred when the files are updated. I know a lot of users rely on this behavior, including us every now and then. Debian is a little different than most package feeds because of how the component part works, but it should be the same.

This should be relatively easy to test/verify:

Create two two packages (A-1.0.deb, A-1.1.deb)
Add a dummy file to the A-1.0.deb archive, save it as alt-A-1.0.deb
Create a new Debian2 feed and upload A-1.0, A-1.1; verify feed has two packages
Upload alternate A-1.0 file; download the package and verify it's modified and feed has two packages
Replicate to a new Debian2 feed; both packages should replicate
Upload the original A-1.0 file, and it should replicate within a couple minutes
Upload the alt-A-1.0 file, and it should replicate within a couple minutes

If you can reproduce this on a new feed configuration, maybe it's something to do with the package files; can you send them to us? Then we will try to rperoduce in a debugging environment.

Thanks,
Alana

frei_zs

Hey Alana,

thank you very much. Maybe this is some issue with our setup then. I will further check and investigate on our side first. :)

Best,
Frank