Welcome to http.debian.net

About http.debian.net

This is a test setup of the http-redirector project by Raphael Geissert. It aims to solve the problem of choosing a Debian mirror among the hundreds available, and other typical problems related to the mirrors. The redirector takes into consideration the geo and network location of the user and the mirror, the requirements of the user (such as the architecture of the requested files, IP address family, etc.), and the status of the mirrors (such as their availability and freshness.)
If you are familiar with cdn.debian.net you should think of http.debian.net as a superior replacement.
Give the demonstration a try!

Using the redirector

Replace your currently configured Debian mirror in sources.list with the following address:

http://http.debian.net/debian

deb http://http.debian.net/debian stable main

You may use it like you would use a primary Debian mirror: binaries, sources, stable, testing, experimental, etc., they are all supported.

http://http.debian.net/debian-backports

http://http.debian.net/debian-archive

http://http.debian.net/debian-security
http://security.debian.org/

http://http.debian.net/debian-cd

• For the security repository, you should not rely on third party mirrors. You should always use them in addition to the main mirrors.
• The debian CDs mirror is known not to provide the same set of discs. Due to the nature of the CDs repository, where mirrors may contain a non-specific subset of the files, only a solution such as mirrorbrain is viable.

Note: some people seem to be testing the above URLs by copying&pasting as-is in their browser. They will fail. You need to add a slash at the end.

Advantages and other approaches

There are other approaches to solving the problem of choosing a mirror. For a comparison to similar tools, like mirrorbrain, please refer to the README file in the code repository.

Advantages over a good old, specific mirror

• No offline mirrors
• No out of date mirrors
• New mirrors are used
• Load-balancing
• Faster downloads (when APT is used, via parallel downloads)
• Great on mobility

Advantages over cdn.debian.net

cdn.debian.net uses a technology called geoDNS. Although this technology has its benefits, such as being protocol-independent, it also has its limitations.
Some of the advantages over such approach include:

• Partial mirrors can be used
• Mirrors whose copy is not in /debian (e.g. /pub/debian)
• Immediate effect on database changes (no DNS propagation lag)

Advantages over mirror:// method

Some of the existing advantages over the mirror:// method being developed within apt:

• Per-request decision making: no need to apt-get update to choose a different mirror.
• Transparent solution: any http client supporting redirections is able to use it.
• Support for backports, security, etc.
• Available today.

IPv6 support

The code does support IPv6 (please refer to the README for the details.) However, the current host doesn't have IPv6 connectivity.

The plan

Put simply: World domination.
Well, no, not really. If users like it, they will use it. If they don't, well, they won't use it. Either way, I had fun learning some of the necessary bits and coding it.
Oh, and there's still a lot that can be done to improve the redirector. If you are interested please do clone the repository and get in touch with me.
There are plans for features such as:

• determining when a mirror should be checked (besides the usual mirror checking period) based on user request patterns.
• allow a mirror to run the redirector on top of it to send users to the best mirror, or deliver the files themselves, as appropriate.
• etc

How about local/private mirrors?

The redirector can not send users to a local address. Use a caching proxy.
If you don't have control over the network infrastructure, you might want to look at apt-p2p.

The code, issues, etc

The code repository is now at github. Feel free to clone it, hack it, send pull requests, report bugs (in the code! see below), etc. If you really don't want to create an account there (for whatever reason) you may send me (Raphael) an email, but I might need some prodding.

https://github.com/rgeissert/http-redirector.git

If you are having issues with the redirector itself, please email me instead. Hash sum mismatches, poor mirror selection, etc., I'd like to know about all that.

Please send feedback to Raphael Geissert