Reflector Simple issues....?

[ricklinux]

When you get these new pacnew files am i suppose to let them overwrite the existing?

Edit: What i mean is on a normal update?

[anon3337769]

Some advice re:mirrors, take it or leave it…

I keep my mirrors pretty constant; here in the US, I don’t see any reason to do a lot of re-ranking. So I put my top 5 mirrors in a group at the top of the mirrors list, then when I get a pacnew for the mirrors, I just copy and paste that section to the top of the pacnew, delete the old mirror list, and rename the pacnew.

Actually, 4 out of 5 times, I just delete the mirrorlist.pacnew. Again, that’s me; I don’t ever have a need to change mirrors.

EXAMPLE (my mirrors in a section at the top of the list):

#
## Arch Linux repository mirrorlist
## Generated on 2020-09-20
##

## United States (my mirrors)
Server = https://iad.mirrors.misaka.one/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://arch.mirror.constant.com/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://arlm.tyzoid.com/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.lug.mtu.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://archmirror1.octyl.net/$repo/os/$arch

## Worldwide
#Server = http://mirrors.evowise.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
#Server = http://mirror.rackspace.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
#Server = https://mirror.rackspace.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
  etc
  etc
  etc...

[ricklinux]

I agree with you as i only use Canada & US and there isn’t that many. It’s not really a problem with the mirrors really as i’m not having issues. It’s just the reflector-simple is not working like it used to. Something has changed and i don’t know what it is but the terminal window NEVER opened before in all the time i have used it. Yes sometimes it’s slower that other times but this is different and others have noticed it too. I’m just wondering if i should have other servers besides Canada & US?

[anon3337769]

I don’t use reflector, so I can’t help you there. But do you really need to rank your mirrors often? I do it less than once a year…

[manuel]

@ricklinux

Edit: My reflector-simple.conf

You don’t have to do anything with the config file.
By default, everything there is commented out (by the # character in the beginning of each line).
But if you want to have your favorite defaults for reflector-simple, you can put then into the config file. Then simply edit it and give e.g. the options you see on your result:

-c CA -c US --protocol https --age 8 --sort rate --number 18

or you can set different default values.

You can also use the time command to see how slow reflector is:

time reflector -c CA -c US --protocol https --age 8 --sort rate --number 18

Then about the new terminal window:

@ricklinux

This window never used to open.

It is a new feature of reflector-simple, it shows the program is currently running reflector (which does not have a progress bar). It was supposed to give user some ease of mind while waiting for reflector (as it can be quite slow!). But does it?

@ricklinux

What was the pacnew? I’m sure i have it but what does it do?

It is a newer version of the config file. Of course it doesn’t contain your possible changes, so you should compare the config file and the new .pacnew config file, and copy possible new features to your existing config file. Just like almost any .pacnew file for config files of other apps.

[ricklinux]

I can only say from experience that the save window used to come up quite quickly or in a fairly reasonable amount of time now it seems to take longer. With the terminal window open it makes it even more noticeable.

[manuel]

You could use the time program to measure the difference…

[ricklinux]

@manuel

time reflector -c CA -c US --protocol https --age 8 --sort rate --number 18

real    0m33.022s
user    0m0.674s
sys     0m0.210s

[manuel]

Is that the same or worse than before?

[ricklinux]

Better!

[manuel]

Great!

[manuel]

Actually, if I add Germany and France to the ranking list, I’ll see about the same time.
Reflector is slow, but I’m not surprised, because ranking the mirrors is a slow process.

[ricklinux]

Why the 403 error?

[ricklinux@eos-kde ~]$ time reflector -c CA -c US --protocol https --age 8 --sort rate --number 18

[2020-12-10 11:57:53] WARNING: failed to rate http(s) download (https://mirror.ava.dev/archlinux/community/os/x86_64/community.db): HTTP Error 403: Forbidden
################################################################################
################# Arch Linux mirrorlist generated by Reflector #################
################################################################################

# With:       reflector -c CA -c US --protocol https --age 8 --sort rate --number 18
# When:       2020-12-10 16:57:53 UTC
# From:       https://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/json/
# Retrieved:  2020-12-10 16:57:21 UTC
# Last Check: 2020-12-10 15:34:05 UTC

Server = https://mirror.wdc1.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://iad.mirrors.misaka.one/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.sergal.org/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://plug-mirror.rcac.purdue.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://muug.ca/mirror/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://arch.mirror.constant.com/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.rit.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://arch.mirror.square-r00t.net/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.stephen304.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.mit.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.dal10.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.mia11.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://ftp.sudhip.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://ord.mirror.rackspace.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://repo.ialab.dsu.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.sfo12.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.ette.biz/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://arch.hu.fo/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch


real    0m33.022s
user    0m0.674s
sys     0m0.210s
[ricklinux@eos-kde ~]$ 

[manuel]

I’ve seen that many times. Some mirrors are either temporarily or permanently offline, or for some other reason not responding. But fortunately very many mirrors do respond within a certain timeout period.

Also, if you write too strict option values to reflector, that can cause issues too.
Experimenting with the values will help to see the limits of sensible values on your location.

[joekamprad]

@BONK

sudo DIFFPROG=meld pacdiff

we should add this to welcome

B.T.W reflector-simple is working here taking less then a minute to get 25 mirrors sorted for Germany,Netherlands,Poland using it from welcome

[joekamprad]

I do just update the Wiki Page for automatic mirrorranking:
https://endeavouros.com/docs/pacman/rank-mirrorlist/

[ricklinux]

I going to reset mine up using this. I had forgot about it.

[Christopher67]

I just did it and this is what i got.

[dad@dad-EndeavourOS ~]$ time reflector -c CA -c US --protocol https --age 8 --sort rate --number 18
[2020-12-10 14:25:39] WARNING: failed to rate http(s) download (https://mirror.ava.dev/archlinux/community/os/x86_64/community.db): HTTP Error 403: Forbidden
################################################################################
################# Arch Linux mirrorlist generated by Reflector #################
################################################################################

With: reflector -c CA -c US --protocol https --age 8 --sort rate --number 18

When: 2020-12-10 19:25:39 UTC

From: https://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/json/

Retrieved: 2020-12-10 19:24:54 UTC

Last Check: 2020-12-10 18:51:55 UTC

Server = https://arch.mirror.constant.com/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://arch.mirror.square-r00t.net/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.mit.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://iad.mirrors.misaka.one/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.wdc1.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.stephen304.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.rit.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.ette.biz/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://muug.ca/mirror/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.mia11.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.sergal.org/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://repo.ialab.dsu.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirrors.kernel.org/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://ftp.sudhip.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.dal10.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://archmirror1.octyl.net/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://mirror.lty.me/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = https://arch.hu.fo/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

real 0m46.970s
user 0m1.063s
sys 0m0.416s
[dad@dad-EndeavourOS ~]$
[dad@dad-EndeavourOS ~]$

[ricklinux]

I’m not understanding this pacnew file? When i run an update an i see this pacnew file what am i supposed to do overwrite it? Ignore?

[anon3337769]

There’s a lot of good info on pacnew files in this thread:

Trying to understand .pacnew files

Hi all, I’m trying to make myself prepared and capable for dealing with .pacnew files when the need arises. This is the understanding I got from googling: I can use vimdiff to merge the two configuration files eg. vimdiff /etc/pacman.conf /etc/pacman.conf.pacnew Then apply changes to the old config file: a. add stuff to old which has been added to .pacnew, b. delete stuff from old which isn’t present in .pacnew, modify stuff in old which has been modified in .pacnew` I have three ques…

Plus, refer to the Arch Wiki link listed above in post #39.

You can also check post #42 to see how I handle mirrorlist.pacnew files.