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I had a bunch of errors in the output of sudo apt-get update: duplicate entries and 404 not found errors.

Figured those out, I hope: I removed PPAs that didn't have any packages associated with them, then I removed out a duplicate entry in /etc/apt/sources.list.

It seems I have royally buggered it up. Now most of the lines say Ign when I do sudo apt-get update.

How do I go about straightening out what I have screwed up? I need to get rid of these Igns that are all over the place. There are about 50% (eyeball guess) Igns!

Artur Meinild
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bruce
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2 Answers2

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When you use apt-get update it verifies if the same update indexes need downloading, if not it does not download the same updated indexes again.

  • Hit means apt checked the timestamps on package list, those match and there are no changes.

  • Ign means there are no changes in the pdiff index file, it wont bother downloading it again.

  • Get means apt checked the timestamps on package list, there were changes and will be downloaded.

Nothing to be scared of, it just means there is no need to download updated indexes again, the ones you have are current.

hiigaran
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Bruno Pereira
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  • AFAIK the list of packages is contained in the packages.gz/bz2 file in the repo. So, does your answer means that: Hit stand for checking the timestamp of packages.gz file and its Ok. And if time stamps are mismatched then it checks the contents of the packages.gz file literally to match with my computers cache, if found all packages then gives Ign, otherwise update that repo cache. If i am not right then could you be more specific for me? – heemayl Nov 02 '14 at 10:01
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    This appears to contradict http://superuser.com/questions/454867/how-do-ign-and-hit-affect-apt-get-update which says that Ign is an error condition. – pbhj Jan 19 '15 at 23:24
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    I've looked at the source file acqprogress.cc from "apt" and it too appears contradictory: it outputs "Ign" if (Itm.Owner->Status == pkgAcquire::Item::StatDone) - StatDone means the file has downloaded (cf acquire-item.h) but the block where Ign is output is an error handling block for failed downloads ... it's seemingly beyond my beginner coding comprehension. Just flagging the contradiction with superuser.com though. – pbhj Jan 19 '15 at 23:51
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    This answer is not correct. Ign means that apt tried to download something (such as translation or InRelease file) but didn't found, but that can be ignored. Proceed to the next thing. Hit means apt needed to download a Release file (because somehow it got deleted) and once it is downloaded, It checks the checksum of the Package file and found that the checksum mentioned in the newly downloaded Release file matches with the checksum of the Package file already there. It's a Hit. So, it won't download the Package file again. – Anwar Aug 23 '16 at 16:31
  • Just to make this clearer, this doesn't mean that this is not a "problem"? Why does this show up everytime i apt-get update? Just confuses me :S – Kar19 Feb 13 '17 at 13:39
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The correct answer of this question is:

  • Ign means apt tried to download something (such as translation or InRelease file) but didn't find, but that can be ignored, so proceed to the next thing. Because translation can be secondary priority and if InRelease file can't be found, it uses other method for authentication like using Release and Release.gpg pair.

  • Hit means apt needed to download a Release file or InRelease file (because somehow it got deleted) and once it is downloaded, it checked the checksum of the Index file in it and found that the checksum mentioned there matches the checksum of the Package file already downloaded that is in /var/lib/apt/lists. That's why it's a Hit. So, it won't download the Package file again.

Found the answer from:

Community
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Anwar
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