Synchronize translation files

[pulpbot]

Author: @quba42 (quba42)

Redmine Issue: 8734, https://pulp.plan.io/issues/8734

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This feature has been partially implemented, but I don't think it has ever actually worked and contains various sync breaking bugs.
As a result I will disable translation file synchronization completely for now.

The feature can then be re-added once fully completed. The following is a list of issues I have identified with the current incomplete implementation:

• Debian references extracted versions of translation file archives in the Release file even if not actually there. This messes with the current implementation, but can be fixed by handling translation files the same way we do this for package indices.
• We are currently synchronizing "translation diff file indexes", but not the files referenced from those indexes.
• We are storing translation files as GenericContent, but the corresponding serializer cannot deal with multi artifact content.

[pulpbot]

From: @quba42 (quba42)
Date: 2021-05-12T13:17:21Z

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When we readd this we should also add some documentation.

[pulpbot]

From: @quba42 (quba42)
Date: 2021-05-12T13:59:30Z

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Start by reverting this commit: 98f25d846f41fc817501451daef39118d18d06b2

[stale]

This issue has been marked 'stale' due to lack of recent activity. If there is no further activity, the issue will be closed in another 30 days. Thank you for your contribution!

[joernheissler]

Hi,
how can the bug(s) be reproduced?

[mdellweg]

It is more a missing feature than a bug.

[joernheissler]

Yep. But I'm wondering what needs to be done to actually notice that features are missing or something isn't working.
A while ago I reverted 98f25d8 and as far as I remember, I couldn't see any issues.

[stale]

This issue is no longer marked for closure.

[quba42]

relates to #401

[quba42]

It looks like without this "feature" verbatim publications of upstream repos with translation files are currently unusable, because APT clients will choke on them as follows:

E: Failed to fetch http://pulp.example.net:8080/pulp/content/pr3/1/debian/bullseye-security/dists/bullseye-security/main/i18n/Translation-en  404  Not Found [IP: 192.168.1.1 8080]

In such cases, the only workaround available is to use a normal APT publication instead (which has various advantages/disadvantages when compared to a verbatim publication).

[stejoo]

One can configure APT on an already installed system to ignore Translation files. For example create a /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50-ignore-translations

Acquire::Languages "none";

This will make an apt update work on a Debian box that is pointed to a Pulp verbatim repository, for example one holding a copy of an official Debian mirror repository.

However I have not a found an easy way to install a fresh Debian system using a Pulp verbatim mirror of a Debian repository. I am testing with Debian bullseye (11) and it fails to fetch the main/i18n/Translation-en file. This feature to also synchronize the Translation file would be very welcome. I have no idea of the amount of work involved though. Thank you for the efforts so far! 😄

[quba42]

Thanks for the extra information. Ultimately the scenario we want to support is precisely installations from synced content. However, we don't yet have a time plan for when we will get to it. 😐