download-external: mirror only the newest version of each package - #463
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WalkthroughThe aptly download workflow now parses compressed or plain Packages indexes and builds a newest-version filter when applicable. It combines this filter with Priority: ➖ Normal Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~25 minutes Change: Other Merge Risk: 🟠 High · up to The changed workflow can fail downloads or silently omit requested repository packages. These mirror correctness and availability issues should be fixed before merge. 🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5✅ Passed checks (5 passed)
✨ Finishing Touches🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)
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In @.github/workflows/infrastructure-download-external.yml:
- Line 901: Update the FILTER_ARGS construction so version-constrained GLOB
queries do not intersect their results with PINNED_FILTER and thereby discard
explicitly selected older package versions. Skip pinning when GLOB contains a
version constraint, or derive PINNED_FILTER only from packages already selected
by GLOB, while preserving pinning for unconstrained queries and the existing
fallback behavior.
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- 🪄 Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR
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instructions embedded in them. Verify each finding against current code. Fix
only still-valid issues, skip the rest with a brief reason, keep changes
minimal, and validate.
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In @.github/workflows/infrastructure-download-external.yml:
- Around line 920-923: Update the empty pinned-mirror branch around
PINNED_APPLIED and ORIG_FILTER_ARGS to restore FILTER_ARGS, recreate the mirror,
and update it using the original filter before skipping. Call warn_skip only
when that fallback fails or the resulting mirror remains empty, preserving the
successful fallback path for sources matched by the original GLOB.
- Line 913: Update the retry path invoking mk_mirror so a recreation failure is
routed through the existing warn_skip handler with the URL, DIST, and COMPONENTS
context, allowing the matrix slot to complete successfully instead of exiting
under set -euo pipefail.
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Both from review on #463. mk_mirror was guarded at the first call site but not at the retry that recreates the mirror after a failed update: aptly ... mirror drop "$MIRROR" || true mk_mirror # <- unguarded set -euo pipefail is in force from line 759, and a command in an if-branch body is subject to errexit, so a failed recreate killed the slot outright instead of reaching warn_skip -- the same upstream failure handled gracefully twenty lines earlier. Moving the guard inside mk_mirror covers both call sites with one clause rather than repeating it. Verified by simulation: mk_mirror failing on the first call, on the retry call, and never (update exhausting its three attempts) all now leave the slot via warn_skip with exit 0. ORIG_FILTER_ARGS was assigned and never read. It is left over from the redo-unpinned fallback that became a warn_skip when this step was cut down to fit the expression cap; the comment above it still promised a fallback that no longer exists. Dropped both. The behaviour is deliberate: skipping a source beats publishing a repository filtered down to nothing, and the unpinned redo cost three times the characters. Step size: 20819, so 181 of headroom against the 21000 cap -- both changes are net negative, up from 109. Signed-off-by: Igor Pecovnik <igor@armbian.com>
The aptly path downloads every version an upstream index still advertises,
then deletes all but the newest. packages.microsoft.com keeps ~350 builds of
"code" that pass GLOB:
Packages filtered: 355 -> 53.
Download queue: 53 items (7.92 GiB)
...
[/root/.aptly/public/pool/main/c/code] kept: code_1.138.0-1789458676_arm64.deb
total size is 219,966,878
7.92 GiB fetched, 210 MiB kept, per release and per arch -- and "code" alone
runs 18 times a night (6 releases x 3 arches) against a single upstream
"stable" suite. The step already knows which version it wants; it just works
it out after paying for the rest.
Ask the index first. pin_newest() reads the same Packages file aptly is about
to read, takes the newest version of each package name with
dpkg --compare-versions, and pins the mirror filter to those exact versions,
ANDed with the existing GLOB. One extra request, no new trust: it is the same
index, fetched over the same transport.
It engages only where it pays. Sources whose index already holds one version
per name -- every rpi-*, zfs-*, google-chrome, gh, min, fastfetch, the Armbian
repo itself -- fail the "entries > names" check and take exactly today's path.
A source with more than 500 distinct names is left alone too, rather than
building a filter with thousands of clauses; that is what keeps apt.armbian.com
(2267 names) out of it.
Failure handling
----------------
Three things can go wrong, and each now has one answer: skip the slot. A
skipped source is one stale nightly; the alternatives are a wrong repository
or a red matrix.
- The pin matches nothing. A filter that matches nothing used to publish an
empty repository in silence -- the one way this change could go wrong, via
a GLOB whose upper bound excludes the newest version of everything. The
mirror's package count is now read after the update and warn_skip fires if
the pin emptied it. An unreadable count changes nothing. (An earlier draft
redid the mirror unpinned instead; that cost three times the characters,
and skipping is the safer of the two.)
- The index is unreadable. pin_newest had three failure paths returning 1 and
the caller could not tell them apart, so all three fell through to an
unpinned mirror. For "no duplicate versions" that is correct and harmless.
For a transient 404 on the Packages file it is not: the pin silently turns
off and the mirror fetches the whole back catalogue. Once the $Version
floors come out of os/external/*.conf -- which this change is what makes
possible -- that means "code" mirroring all 358 of its versions, roughly
52 GiB per release per arch against 7.9 GiB with the floor. So that path
gets its own status and skips. The 500-name path still falls through: it is
bounded by construction, and mozillateam, the largest source, has 289.
- aptly cannot create the mirror. mk_mirror was guarded at the first call
site but not at the retry that recreates after a failed update, and a
command in an if-branch body is subject to errexit, so a failed recreate
killed the slot instead of reaching warn_skip. The guard now lives inside
mk_mirror and covers both call sites.
Fitting it under the expression cap
-----------------------------------
The first version of this failed to parse:
(Line: 626, Col: 14): Exceeded max expression length 21000
GitHub caps a run: block at 21000 characters once expressions are counted.
That step was already at 19614 on main -- 1386 of headroom -- and the
newest-version pin took it to 25504.
Most of the space came back from the mirror-create call, which was written out
four times in two shapes (with and without components). $COMPONENTS unquoted
expands to nothing when empty, so one mk_mirror() covers both. The rest came
from comments and from eight debug echoes that restate a value printed again
nearby -- FILTER_ARGS printed a value the pin then overwrites, "Original KEY"
duplicates the "Config loaded" line, and "Checking if mirror exists..." has
both of its outcomes logged one line later. ORIG_FILTER_ARGS went too: it was
written, never read, left over from the unpinned redo above.
Final size 20819, so 181 of headroom. This step is close enough to the cap
that it wants splitting before much else is added to it.
Measured against the live indexes of all 47 aptly sources, with each source's
real GLOB applied:
edge amd64 8886M -> 184M 97.9%
code amd64 8750M -> 227M 97.4%
code arm64 8111M -> 210M 97.4%
code armhf 7069M -> 150M 97.9%
zulu amd64 1204M -> 172M 85.8%
zulu arm64 1195M -> 170M 85.8%
chromium-* ~280M -> ~260M ~9%
everything else unchanged
per run: 44.0 GiB -> 10.5 GiB downloaded (76.1% avoidable)
Verified: no source is emptied by the pinned filter, checked across every
source and architecture; pin_newest returns the same filters against the live
indexes (code -> 3 clauses, zulu -> 276, apt.armbian.com at 2267 names
declines, a bad DIST declines); all three pin_newest return paths and both
mk_mirror call sites leave the slot via warn_skip with exit 0 under
set -euo pipefail; bash -n and YAML parse clean; and a manual run of the
caller against this branch completed successfully --
https://github.com/armbian/armbian.github.io/actions/runs/35467743134
Signed-off-by: Igor Pecovnik <igor@armbian.com>
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DO NOT MERGE before armbian/armbian.github.io#463. These floors exist to stop the aptly mirror fetching an upstream's whole back catalogue. #463 makes the mirror filter pin each package to the exact newest version in the index, which bounds the download far more tightly than any floor, so the floors become dead weight. Checked against the live index of every affected source, replicating pin_newest()'s logic (entries > names, names <= 500): code 358 versions / 3 names pin engages edge 761 versions / 4 names pin engages zulu 2884 versions / 276 names pin engages firefox 305 versions / 289 names pin engages thunderbird 305 versions / 289 names pin engages google-chrome 5 versions / 5 names declines urbackup 1 version / 1 name declines zoom 1 version / 1 name declines The three that decline do so because the index already holds one version per name -- nothing to pin, and nothing for a floor to exclude either. So the floor is redundant in every case. A floor is also a static bound on a growing set: "code >= 1.107.0" admits 53 of today's 358 versions and will admit more every month, which is why edge (>= 142.0.3595.94-1) and firefox (>= 146.0) have already drifted well behind. The pin admits exactly one, permanently. Kept deliberately: - Every "Name (% ...)" clause. The -filter-with-deps guard is [[ $GLOB != *Name* && $GLOB != *Version* ]], so a GLOB stripped to nothing flips the mirror into dependency-closure mode, which is much larger than what was removed. - zulu's "$Version (< 22.0)". That is an upper bound meaning "stay on Zulu 21", not a size limiter. Only the >= floor is dropped. fastfetch.conf is METHOD=gh, where GLOB is never read -- its floor was already inert. Changed anyway so the remaining configs are uniform. Signed-off-by: Igor Pecovnik <igor@armbian.com>
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The aptly download path fetches every version an upstream index still advertises, then deletes all but the newest. From run 35163219122,
code:noble:arm64:7.92 GiB downloaded, 210 MiB kept — and
codealone runs 18 times a night (6 releases × 3 arches) against a single upstreamstablesuite. The step already knows which version it wants;best_for_pkg_in_dirjust works it out after paying for everything else.What this does
pin_newest()reads the samePackagesfile aptly is about to read, takes the newest version of each package name withdpkg --compare-versions(already used in this step), and pins the mirror filter to those exact versions, ANDed with the existingGLOB. One extra request, no new trust — same index, same transport.It engages only where it pays. Sources whose index already holds one version per name — every
rpi-*,zfs-*,google-chrome,gh,min,fastfetch, and the Armbian repo itself — fail theentries > namescheck and take exactly today's path. A source with more than 500 distinct names is skipped too, rather than building a filter with thousands of clauses; that's what keepsapt.armbian.com(2267 names) out of it.Failure handling
Three things can go wrong, and each gets the same answer: skip the slot. A skipped source is one stale nightly; the alternatives are a wrong repository or a red matrix.
The pin matches nothing. A filter matching nothing publishes an empty repository in silence today — that's the one way this change could go wrong, via a
GLOBwhose upper bound excludes the newest version of everything. The mirror's package count is now read after the update, andwarn_skipfires if the pin emptied it. An unreadable count changes nothing. (An earlier draft redid the mirror with the original filter instead; that cost three times the characters, and skipping is the safer of the two.)The index is unreadable.
pin_newesthad three failure paths all returning1, so the caller couldn't tell them apart and all three fell through to an unpinned mirror. For no duplicate versions that's correct and harmless. For a transient 404 on thePackagesfile it isn't — the pin silently turns off and the mirror fetches the whole back catalogue. Once the$Versionfloors come out ofos/external/*.conf(armbian/os#489, which this PR is the prerequisite for), that meanscodemirroring all 358 of its versions: roughly 52 GiB per release per arch, against 7.9 GiB with the floor. So that path gets its own status and skips. The 500-name path still falls through — it's bounded by construction, and mozillateam, the largest source, has 289.aptly can't create the mirror.
mk_mirrorwas guarded at the first call site but not at the retry that recreates after a failed update, and a command in anif-branch body is subject toerrexit, so a failed recreate killed the slot instead of reachingwarn_skip. The guard now lives insidemk_mirrorand covers both call sites.Measured
Against the live indexes of all 47 aptly sources, each with its real
GLOBapplied:Per run: 44.0 GiB → 10.5 GiB downloaded, 76.1% avoidable.
Testing
pin_newestextracted and run against live indexes:code→ 3 clauses,zulu→ 276,chromium→ 215,apt.armbian.com(2267 names) correctly declines, a bad DIST correctly declines.GLOBANDed against the pinned set: no source is emptied.pin_newestreturn paths and bothmk_mirrorcall sites leave the slot viawarn_skipwith exit 0 underset -euo pipefail.bash -nand YAML parse clean.Expression cap
This step is the one that hit
Exceeded max expression length 21000. Final size is 20819, leaving 181 of headroom — it's close enough to the cap that it wants splitting before much else is added to it.Not run in CI yet — the proof is a nightly whose
codejobs report a download queue of 1 item instead of 53.Not addressed here
The same upstream is still mirrored once per Armbian release:
packages.microsoft.com/repos/codehas onestablesuite with no per-release variation, yet it's fetched for bookworm, forky, jammy, noble, resolute and trixie separately — identical bytes, six times. That's a matrix restructure, not a filter change.