[tex-live] Choosing a mirror

[Robin Fairbairns]

Ken Brown <kbrow1i at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 11/23/2009 12:41 PM, Joel C. Salomon wrote:
> > Is it reasonable to set the repository to
> > <http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet>, or should I choose a
> > mirror and stick to it?  I last updated from a
> > more-recently-refreshed mirror and now running “tlmgr update --list”
> > is alternately telling me
> 
> One strategy is to run 'tlmgr update --list' until it chooses a mirror
> that you like.  Then rerun 'tlmgr update ...', explicitly specifying
> the good mirror on the command line.  Choosing a mirror and sticking
> to it forever is not likely to be reliable.

in general, however, it's better to stick with one mirror for as long as
possible -- certainly for the course of one update campaign.

mirrors, as the op has already found, mirror at different times, so the
version slew he observed is an ever-present hazard.  (every so often a
mirror will fail to mirror at all; we have automated procedures for
detecting that, centrally, and we remove the site from the mirror
database when there's obviously something awry.  mirror.ctan.org uses
our database, of course.)

robin