Re: Hydra serving source tarballs

[Andreas Enge]

On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 01:34:26PM +0100, Sree Harsha Totakura wrote:
> I just observed that `guix build' is downloading source tarballs from
> Hydra.  Is this supposed to be a feature?  If so, what is the rationale
> behind not trying to download the source ball from mirrors or upstream
> download addresses?

I think it is a feature for tarballs that have disappeared from upstream
(it sounds a bit crazy, but some projects delete old versions, or move them
to a separate location). Some also modify the tarball without giving it
a new name.

I think it is a bug because usually hydra is slower than upstream.
Using "--no-substitutes" prevents the download of tarballs, but also the
maybe desired download of binaries from hydra.

I would be in favour of downloading tarballs from upstream by default, and,
if it fails, keeping tarball downloads from hydra as a last resort.

Andreas