freebsd-update fetching files failed

[Tom Worster]

a funny thing happened on wat to 7.1 today (from 7.0-p6):


# freebsd-update upgrade -r 7.1-RELEASE
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 2 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 7.0-RELEASE from update2.FreeBSD.org...
done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.
The following components of FreeBSD seem to be installed:
...
Does this look reasonable (y/n)? y
Fetching metadata signature for 7.1-RELEASE from update2.FreeBSD.org...
done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Fetching files from 7.0-RELEASE for merging... done.
Preparing to download files... done.
Fetching 17537 
patches.....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100....
...
4120....4130....4140. done.
Applying patches... done.
Fetching 12842 files... failed.


failed? at this point i couldn't think of anything else to do but try again:


# freebsd-update upgrade -r 7.1-RELEASE
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 2 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 7.0-RELEASE from update2.FreeBSD.org...
done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.
The following components of FreeBSD seem to be installed:
...
Does this look reasonable (y/n)? y
Fetching metadata signature for 7.1-RELEASE from update2.FreeBSD.org...
done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Fetching files from 7.0-RELEASE for merging... done.
Preparing to download files... done.
Fetching 7292 
patches.....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100....110
...
2030....2040....2050....2060....2070....2080....2090....2100.. done.
Applying patches... done.
Fetching 5549 files... done.
Attempting to automatically merge changes in files... done.


so i'm assuming a network error during the download of the fetching files in
the first attempt. but...

it seems odd. if 17537 patches were downloaded...done, i.e. sucessfully, how
come the second attempt downloads an additional 7292 patches?

the road continues...


The following file could not be merged automatically: /etc/hosts
Press Enter to edit this file in vi and resolve the conflicts
manually...


so then i go through the manual merging of config files and later i am asked
to confirm the changes:


The following changes, which occurred between FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE and
FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE have been merged into /etc/hosts:
...
Does this look reasonable (y/n)? n


i answered 'n' and freebsd-update turned its back on me like a huffy
teenager. if it didn't want to know the truth, why did it ask? a parting
message to suggest what i might do next would have been welcome.