Where is "http://ubuntu/ubuntu" (in apt sources.list) defined?

Question

In recent servers provided by my client's hosting provider, the /etc/apt/sources.list file contains references to:

deb http://ubuntu/ubuntu/ xenial main restricted
...
deb http://ubuntu-secu/ubuntu xenial-security multiverse

while previous servers contained lines that I'm used to see:

deb http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main restricted
...
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-security multiverse

This particular url doesn't seem to resolve, yet the upgrades seem to work.

Is this something provided by Ubuntu itself?

If not, what is the explanation and where can it likely be defined?

I'd rather expect that this is something provided by your hosting provider, and it only resolves inside their network. — Gerald Schneider, Feb 01 '19 at 09:15
I though about that, but `curl -I http://ubuntu` gives `curl: (6) Could not resolve host: ubuntu`, same for `dig`. I'm puzzled at this point! — Thibaut Barrère, Feb 01 '19 at 09:19
You did not disclose if it doesn't resolve on your server or on your local machine, so the option was still possible. — Gerald Schneider, Feb 01 '19 at 09:20
It's buried in the middle of the text, sorry about that! But thanks for the suggestion! (EDIT: I understand you now!) — Thibaut Barrère, Feb 01 '19 at 09:22
Thanks again for your comment, this helped me find the right direction! — Thibaut Barrère, Feb 01 '19 at 09:32

Thibaut Barrère · Answer 1 · 2019-02-14T08:49:21.703

4

I think I found out: the provider has set up an apt proxy in /etc/apt/apt.conf:

Acquire::http {
          Proxy "http://xxx.the-provider.com:1234";
};

This seems to understand the http://ubuntu/ubuntu.

edited Feb 14 '19 at 08:49

answered Feb 01 '19 at 09:32

Thibaut Barrère

Nice finding. I didn't think about a proxy, although I'm using one myself inside our network. – Gerald Schneider Feb 01 '19 at 09:38
Well thanks a lot to you - without your suspicion on the provider, I wouldn't have digged necessarily in that direction. Many thanks! – Thibaut Barrère Feb 01 '19 at 09:45
As [Ubuntu does not notice stale proxies by default](https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad/+bug/716535), you probably want to configure appropriate `valid-until-max` for such apt-sources. – anx Feb 01 '19 at 23:54

1 Answers1