CrunchBang Linux

Toolz

#! Die Hard

From: Asia

Registered: 2009-02-02

Posts: 937

netselect-apt

I was missing the old Ubuntu version of Synaptic and went looking to see how they did the selecting best mirror thing in Software Sources.

I found netselect-apt - it's in the Debian repos.

Tricky to use - I couldn't use the first selection it gave me and another time it came up blank but some may find it useful. I eventually found a fast server not too far away.

chillicampari

Pinball Wizard

Registered: 2009-10-09

Posts: 466

Re: netselect-apt

This is cool, Toolz! I'm messing around with it now.

I also crossposted it since repos came up in the thread:  http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/post/61620/#p61620

Usage and tips:

http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2007/05/u … elect.html

Last edited by chillicampari (2010-03-28 00:10:43)

Toolz

#! Die Hard

From: Asia

Registered: 2009-02-02

Posts: 937

Re: netselect-apt

Glad you like it!

I just also played with apt-spy.

It takes a slightly different approach - whereas netselect-apt performs pings, apy-spy spends 20 seconds downloading from each server. The results could be slow unless you limit by area or countries.

I ran
sudo apt-spy -d squeeze -a Asia

... and it gave me a very fast server in-country that I didn't know about.

Options are

options:
-d distribution    Debian distribution (ie, stable). Required unless updating.
-a area        Area to benchmark. (eg, Europe).
-c config    Configuration file to use.
-e number    Number of servers to benchmark before exiting.
-y section-list    Comma separated list of section other then main to include.
-f file        File to grab when benchmarking. (relative to Debian base).
-i file        Specify input file. For use with the -w option.
-m mirror-list    Mirror list to use, or mirror-list to update when updating.
-o output-file    Where to put output.
-p proxy    Proxy server to use. In format <server>:[port]
-s country_list    List of countries to benchmark. Cannot be used with -a.
-t time        Time to benchmark each server for. An approximate value only.
-u update-URL    URL to grab mirror-list from when updating.
-w file        Output top servers (5 by default) to file for use with -i.
-n number    Specifies number of top servers to output with -w.
-v        Output a version number.
-h        Display this message.
update        Update the mirror list.