Should preferred_hosts honour relative ordering within the line?

[Saj Goonatilleke]

On Tue, 24 Dec 2024, at 15:17, Joshua Root wrote:
> A stable sort algorithm is used, so hosts with identical ping times
> stay in the same relative order that they were originally in in
> archive_sites.tcl.
>
> The way preferred_hosts works is to override the ping time of matching
> hosts to 0.

Ah, I see.  Thanks.

Perhaps I am going about this problem in the wrong way.  Instead of
mucking about with preferred_hosts -- where ordering is a bit tricky --
I could insert the CDN names into host_blacklist and let MacPorts sort
the rest out itself.  (In retrospect, this was the obvious workaround.)

The snippet below is a dump of my MacPorts pingtimes cache.  Excluding
the Fastly endpoints, it is close to what I would have selected by hand.

   10.751       packages.macports.org
   10.964       distfiles.macports.org
   14.527       codeload.github.com
   23.367       aarnet.au.packages.macports.org
  119.918       kmq.jp.packages.macports.org
  126.609       jog.id.packages.macports.org
  153.655       oldmanprogrammer.net
  154.303       mirror.fcix.net
  160.063       cjj.kr.distfiles.macports.org
  168.125       pek.cn.distfiles.macports.org
  169.017       pek.cn.packages.macports.org
  195.174       mirror.sjtu.edu.cn
  202.477       ywg.ca.distfiles.macports.org
  202.586       ywg.ca.packages.macports.org
  205.712       ykf.ca.distfiles.macports.org
  206.204       bos.us.distfiles.macports.org
  208.724       mirrors.mit.edu
  209.640       bos.us.packages.macports.org
  237.326       download.imagemagick.org
  252.760       fra.de.packages.macports.org
  254.096       fra.de.distfiles.macports.org
  255.442       nue.de.packages.macports.org
  255.497       www.dest-unreach.org
  256.046       nue.de.distfiles.macports.org
  258.640       fco.it.packages.macports.org
  260.334       fco.it.distfiles.macports.org
  260.509       mse.uk.packages.macports.org
  260.568       mse.uk.distfiles.macports.org
  263.888       mirror.checkdomain.de
  267.018       cph.dk.packages.macports.org
  268.801       cph.dk.distfiles.macports.org
  274.777       vie.at.packages.macports.org
  275.031       vie.at.distfiles.macports.org
  312.543       lis.pt.packages.macports.org
  312.552       lis.pt.distfiles.macports.org
  324.448       sunsite.icm.edu.pl
  408.083       jnb.za.distfiles.macports.org
  408.836       jnb.za.packages.macports.org
10000.000       atl.us.packages.macports.org
10000.000       atl.us.distfiles.macports.org
10000.000       ftp.u-aizu.ac.jp