temporary sourceforge sources are being used

[RamKromberg]

Multiple packages are broken over using sourceforge.net links which are temporary.
Some directly refer to a specific mirror so they succeed so long as the server isn't down-throttled by sourceforge. Others are completely broken. The correct syntax for sourceforge source packages should be "mirror://sourceforge/...".

The following is a partial list compiled from git grep sourceforge.net | grep tar and some light manual editing. It might have false negatives and there could be other offending packages that aren't listed:

pkgs/applications/backup/areca/default.nix:    url = "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/areca/areca-stable/areca-7.5/areca-7.5-src.tar.gz";
pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-modes/bbdb/default.nix:    url = "http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/applications/editors/ht/default.nix:    url = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/hte/files/ht-source/ht-${version}.tar.bz2";
pkgs/applications/graphics/potrace/default.nix:    url = "http://potrace.sourceforge.net/download/${version}/potrace-${version}.tar.gz";
pkgs/applications/misc/abook/default.nix:    url = "http://abook.sourceforge.net/devel/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/applications/misc/gammu/default.nix:    url = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/gammu/files/gammu/${version}/gammu-${version}.tar.xz";
pkgs/applications/misc/mlterm/default.nix:    url = "https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mlterm/01release/${name}/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/applications/misc/xautoclick/default.nix:    url = "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/xautoclick/xautoclick/xautoclick-0.31/xautoclick-0.31.tar.gz";
pkgs/applications/science/math/fricas/default.nix:    url    = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/fricas/files/fricas/1.2.2/${name}-full.tar.bz2";
pkgs/applications/science/math/yacas/default.nix:    url = "http://yacas.sourceforge.net/backups/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/applications/window-managers/windowmaker/dockapps/wmsystemtray.nix:     url = http://sourceforge.net/projects/wmsystemtray/files/wmsystemtray/wmsystemtray-1.4.tar.gz;
pkgs/build-support/upstream-updater/snippets.sh:#http://downloads.sourceforge.net/webdruid/files/webdruid/0.6.0-alpha5/webdruid-0.6.0-alpha5.tar.gz
pkgs/desktops/lxde/core/lxmenu-data.nix:    url = "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/lxde/${name}.tar.xz";
pkgs/development/compilers/fpc/binary.nix:        url = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/freepascal/files/Linux/2.6.0/fpc-2.6.0.i386-linux.tar";
pkgs/development/compilers/fpc/binary.nix:        url = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/freepascal/files/Linux/2.6.0/fpc-2.6.0.x86_64-linux.tar";
pkgs/development/compilers/mozart/binary.nix:    url = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/mozart-oz/files/v${version}-alpha.0/mozart2-${version}-alpha.0+build.4105.5c06ced-x86_64-linux.tar.gz";
pkgs/development/libraries/armadillo/default.nix:    url = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/arma/files/armadillo-${version}.tar.xz";
pkgs/development/libraries/libgringotts/default.nix:    url = "http://libgringotts.sourceforge.net/current/${name}.tar.bz2";
pkgs/development/libraries/libmpeg2/default.nix:    url = "http://libmpeg2.sourceforge.net/files/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/development/libraries/plib/default.nix:    url = "http://plib.sourceforge.net/dist/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/development/tools/misc/dfu-util/default.nix:    url = "http://dfu-util.sourceforge.net/releases/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/development/tools/omniorb/default.nix:    url = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/omniorb/files/omniORB/omniORB-${version}/omniORB-${version}.tar.bz2";
pkgs/games/blobby/default.nix:    url = "http://softlayer-ams.dl.sourceforge.net/project/blobby/Blobby%20Volley%202%20%28Linux%29/1.0/blobby2-linux-1.0.tar.gz";
pkgs/games/mnemosyne/default.nix:    url    = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/mnemosyne-proj/files/mnemosyne/${name}/Mnemosyne-${version}.tar.gz";
pkgs/games/typespeed/default.nix:    url = http://typespeed.sourceforge.net/typespeed-0.6.5.tar.gz;
pkgs/os-specific/linux/procps/watch.nix:    url = http://procps.sourceforge.net/procps-3.2.8.tar.gz;
pkgs/servers/dict/dictd-db.nix:     url = http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/freedict/nld-eng.tar.gz;
pkgs/tools/compression/advancecomp/default.nix:    url="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/advancemame/advancecomp-1.19.tar.gz?download";
pkgs/tools/filesystems/fuseiso/default.nix:    url = "http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuseiso/files/fuseiso/20070708/fuseiso-20070708.tar.bz2";
pkgs/tools/filesystems/jfsutils/default.nix:    url = "http://jfs.sourceforge.net/project/pub/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/tools/filesystems/nilfs-utils/default.nix:    url = "http://nilfs.sourceforge.net/download/nilfs-utils-${version}.tar.bz2";
pkgs/tools/misc/cutecom/default.nix:    url = "http://cutecom.sourceforge.net/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/tools/networking/srelay/default.nix:    url = "https://sourceforge.net/projects/socks-relay/files/socks-relay/srelay-0.4.8/srelay-0.4.8b6.tar.gz";
pkgs/tools/system/foremost/default.nix:    url = "http://foremost.sourceforge.net/pkg/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/tools/text/poedit/default.nix:    url = "http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/poedit/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix:      url = "http://cddb-py.sourceforge.net/${name}.tar.gz";
pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix:      url = "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/cgkit/cgkit/cgkit-${version}/cgkit-${version}-py2k.tar.gz";
pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix:      url = "http://pycurl.sourceforge.net/download/${name}.tar.gz";

Also note that occasionally sourceforge crashes to "disaster recovery mode" and requires javascript to download tarballs.

[phanimahesh]

Is adding a travis check to prevent addition of sourceforge.net links a good idea?

[RamKromberg]

@phanimahesh The problem is that downloads.sourceforge.net is actually the official way to download tarballs from SourceForge. What makes it so unreliable is the same ticketing and load-balancing system SourceForge wants us to use...

That's to say, before modifying travis, the list in pkgs/build-support/fetchurl/mirrors.nix should be edited to start with the official downloads.sourceforge.net to give SF a chance to regulate itself, and only fallback on the known servers list if the download fails or hangs.

[phanimahesh]

No wonder people don't like SF. :/

Okay, I'm opening a new PR to update mirrors. Will follow up with editing out the sourceforge.net links to use mirrors, and then add a travis job to enforce the convention.

[RamKromberg]

No wonder people don't like SF. :/

We actually lucked out here. Windows users get their binaries packed with extra malware...

Okay, I'm opening a new PR to update mirrors. Will follow up with editing out the sourceforge.net links to use mirrors, and then add a travis job to enforce the convention.

Sounds great :) I'll close this issue now that you're on it. Thanks!