[pca] back and annoyed

[Martin Paul]

Hi Don,

> Works for me...

I can now download the patchdiag.xref file again, both via HTTP and 
HTTPS. Is it planned to keep HTTP support for that file at least? If 
possible, I'd prefer to stick to HTTP for the xref file, as it wouldn't 
force those people who use pca for analysis only to get an SSL-enabled 
wget, too.

> It is worth noting that the patchdiag.xref file is still hosted on 
> SunSolve and not akamai (which is the case for all patches).

Yes, I noticed that and saw the different redirects.

> I have been trying to gather a list of problems with wget patch access 
> since the change to using the new download service.
> http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-9-240066-1 was 
> updated last Friday to reflect this information.

Thanks for that!

> My understanding was that the move to the new download service would be 
> transparent, so I was hoping to confirm that everything was stable prior 
> to publicizing it.
> Unfortunately, this is obviously not the case.

As of now I can see two things that changed:

Downloading patches *requires* HTTPS, and therefore an SSL-enabled wget. 
If this would have been announced earlier, it would have been possible 
to tell people to get a new version of wget in time, if required. Recent 
versions of pca already use HTTPS when wget supports it, so the switch 
is usually transparent (minus possible firewall issues). I assume that 
HTTP support for patch downloads won't come back?

Downloading patch READMEs doesn't work anymore, neither with HTTP nor 
with HTTPS. A URL like:

    https://sunsolve.sun.com/pdownload.do?target=112837-20&method=r

was working fine for years, and now returns a 0-byte text/html file. 
This completely breaks pca's "--readme=ID" option. Is there an alternate 
way/URL to access patch READMEs, or is there a chance that the old 
method will be made to work again?

> I have confirmed that the download service has been working correctly 
> for the past hour (though there appears to have been an issue prior to 
> that affecting some downloads).

I had problems with stuck connections between 7:00 and about 10:00 MET 
in the morning; now it seems to work as it's supposed, I guess.

Martin.