FastestMirror 🚀

Because waiting for slow package mirrors is like watching paint dry in a fucking hurricane.

FastestMirror is a blazingly fast, auto-magical tool that finds and configures the fastest package repository mirrors for your Linux distribution. No more suffering through downloads that move slower than continental drift!

Features

• Auto-Detection: Automatically detects your Linux distribution (because we're not psychic, but we're pretty close)
• Concurrent Testing: Tests multiple mirrors simultaneously using Go's goroutines (multithreading that actually works)
• Beautiful Output: Colorful terminal interface that doesn't make your eyes bleed
• Smart Scoring: Combines speed and latency metrics to find the objectively best mirror
• Safe Operations: Always backs up your config before making changes (we're not monsters)
• Wide Support: Works with major Linux distributions and their families

Supported Distributions

Distribution Family	Distributions	Config File
Debian	Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Pop!_OS, Elementary, Kali	/etc/apt/sources.list
Arch	Arch Linux, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Artix	/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Fedora	Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux	/etc/yum.repos.d/
openSUSE	openSUSE, SLES	/etc/zypp/repos.d/
Others	Gentoo, Alpine, Slackware, Void	Various configs

Installation

From Binary (Recommended)

# Download the latest release
curl -L https://git.gostacks.org/iwasforcedtobehere/fastestmirror/releases/latest/download/fastestmirror-linux-amd64 -o fastestmirror

# Make it executable
chmod +x fastestmirror

# Move to your PATH
sudo mv fastestmirror /usr/local/bin/

# Verify it works
fastestmirror --help

From Source (For the Brave)

# Clone this beautiful repository
git clone https://git.gostacks.org/iwasforcedtobehere/fastestmirror.git

# Enter the dragon's lair
cd fastestmirror

# Build the damn thing
go build -o fastestmirror

# Install it system-wide
sudo cp fastestmirror /usr/local/bin/

Package Managers (Coming Soon™)

# Debian/Ubuntu (when we get our shit together)
sudo apt install fastestmirror

# Arch Linux (AUR package pending)
yay -S fastestmirror

# Fedora (RPM coming soon)
sudo dnf install fastestmirror

Usage

Find the Fastest Mirrors

# Basic usage - finds and displays fastest mirrors
fastestmirror find

# Show more results
fastestmirror find --top 10

# Increase timeout for slower connections
fastestmirror find --timeout 30

# Verbose output (because you like details)
fastestmirror find --verbose

Apply the Fastest Mirror

# Apply the fastest mirror (requires root)
sudo fastestmirror apply

# See what would happen without making changes
fastestmirror apply --dry-run

# Force application without confirmation (danger zone!)
sudo fastestmirror apply --force

# Use custom backup location
sudo fastestmirror apply --backup /home/user/my-backup.conf

Other Commands

# Show version and build info
fastestmirror version

# Show help
fastestmirror --help

# Get help for specific commands
fastestmirror find --help

Example Output

Detecting your Linux distribution...
Found: Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (debian family)
Loading mirrors for debian family...
Testing 8 mirrors (timeout: 10s)...
Testing mirrors ████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 8/8

Testing complete! Here are your results:

Rank Mirror URL                                      Latency      Speed      Score
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#1   http://mirror.kakao.com/ubuntu/                  45ms         15.2 MB/s  174.2
#2   http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/ubuntu/     89ms         12.8 MB/s  139.1
#3   http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/               156ms         8.9 MB/s   95.4
#4   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/               234ms         6.2 MB/s   66.3
#5   http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/            312ms         4.1 MB/s   44.2

Winner: http://mirror.kakao.com/ubuntu/
This bad boy clocks in at 15.2 MB/s with 45ms latency

To apply the fastest mirror, run: fastestmirror apply

Configuration

FastestMirror works out of the box with sensible defaults, but you can customize its behavior:

Environment Variables

# Set default timeout (in seconds)
export FASTESTMIRROR_TIMEOUT=30

# Set default number of results to show
export FASTESTMIRROR_TOP_COUNT=5

# Enable verbose output by default
export FASTESTMIRROR_VERBOSE=true

Config File (Future Feature)

# ~/.config/fastestmirror/config.yaml
timeout: 30
top_count: 5
verbose: false
backup_dir: /etc/fastestmirror/backups
custom_mirrors:
  debian:
    - "https://my-custom-mirror.example.com/debian/"

How It Works (The Magic Behind the Scenes)

1. Distribution Detection: Parses /etc/os-release, /etc/lsb-release, and distribution-specific files to identify your system
2. Mirror Discovery: Uses curated lists of official mirrors for each distribution family
3. Concurrent Testing: Spawns goroutines to test multiple mirrors simultaneously
4. Performance Metrics: Measures both latency (ping-like) and download speed using representative files
5. Smart Scoring: Combines metrics with weighted scoring algorithm to rank mirrors objectively
6. Safe Application: Creates backups before modifying system configuration files

Performance Notes

• Speed Testing: Downloads small representative files (Release files, database files, etc.)
• Timeout Handling: Respects timeout settings to avoid hanging on dead mirrors
• Concurrent Limits: Limits concurrent connections to avoid overwhelming your network
• Retry Logic: Automatically retries failed tests with exponential backoff

Development

Building

# Install dependencies
go mod download

# Run tests
go test ./...

# Build for current platform
go build -o fastestmirror

# Build for all platforms
make build-all

# Create release packages
make package

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Architecture

fastestmirror/
├── cmd/           # CLI commands and subcommands
├── internal/      # Internal packages
│   ├── distro/    # Distribution detection logic
│   ├── mirror/    # Mirror testing and management
│   └── config/    # Configuration management
├── pkg/           # Public packages (if any)
└── scripts/       # Build and deployment scripts

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"Could not detect distribution"

• Make sure you're running on a supported Linux distribution
• Check that /etc/os-release exists and is readable
• Try running with --verbose for more details

"No working mirrors found"

• Check your internet connection
• Try increasing the timeout with --timeout 60
• Some distributions might have all mirrors temporarily down (rare but it happens)

"Permission denied" when applying

• Make sure you're running with sudo when using the apply command
• Check that the configuration file is writable

Tests are slow or timing out

• Increase timeout with --timeout 30 or higher
• Check if your network has restrictions on concurrent connections
• Some corporate firewalls block multiple simultaneous connections

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to all the mirror maintainers who keep our packages flowing
• Inspired by tools like netselect-apt, reflector, and fastestmirror plugin
• Built with Go because life's too short for slow languages
• Coffee and mild frustration with slow mirrors

Disclaimer

This tool modifies system configuration files. While we take precautions (backups, dry-run mode, etc.), use at your own risk. We're not responsible if you accidentally break your package manager and have to reinstall your entire system. That said, the risk is minimal and the speed gains are fucking worth it.