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 1, 2019 at 9:15
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 1, 2019 at 9:19
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 1, 2019 at 9:20
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 1, 2019 at 9:22
Thanks again for your comment, this helped me find the right direction! — Thibaut Barrère, Feb 1, 2019 at 9:32

Thibaut Barrère · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-14 08:49:21Z

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.

answered Feb 1, 2019 at 9:32

Thibaut Barrère

7011 gold badge9 silver badges17 bronze badges

Nice finding. I didn't think about a proxy, although I'm using one myself inside our network.
– Gerald Schneider
Feb 1, 2019 at 9:38
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 1, 2019 at 9:45
As Ubuntu does not notice stale proxies by default, you probably want to configure appropriate valid-until-max for such apt-sources.
– anx
Feb 1, 2019 at 23:54

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1