[lxc-users] lxc-create fragile with respect to network failures during package download?

[Dan Kegel]

Hi!
On ubuntu 16.04, with lxc 2.0.0-0ubuntu2, I ran

sudo lxc-create -t ubuntu -n rbb-ubu1604-1-ubu1604 -- -r xenial
--bindhome buildbot

The first time, it failed with
W: Couldn't download package insserv (ver 1.14.0-5ubuntu3 arch amd64)
I: Retrieving iproute2 4.3.0-1ubuntu3
W: Couldn't download package iproute2 (ver 4.3.0-1ubuntu3 arch amd64)
...
E: Couldn't download packages: iproute2 insserv
Delete subvolume (no-commit): '/var/cache/lxc/xenial/partial-amd64'
lxc-create: lxccontainer.c: create_run_template: 1290 container
creation template for rbb-ubu1604-1-ubu1604 failed

The second time, it failed with

E: Couldn't download packages: tar
Delete subvolume (no-commit): '/var/cache/lxc/xenial/partial-amd64'
lxc-create: lxccontainer.c: create_run_template: 1290 container
creation template for rbb-ubu1604-1-ubu1604 failed

So maybe my networking is flaky.  (Or the apt repo was being updated,
but I don't think that's the case.)

Either way, should lxc-create be so willing to abort on package
download failure, or should it sleep and retry a bit somehow?