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Apt: Writing more data than expected

If apt (apt-get, aptitude, etc.) fails with an error message like

Get:1 http://example.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 python-tornado amd64 4.2.1-2~ds+1 [275 kB]
Err:1 http://example.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 python-tornado amd64 4.2.1-2~ds+1
  Writing more data than expected (275122 > 275100)

but the file in the repository has the expected size, a caching proxy (e.g. Apt-Cacher-NG) might be at fault. This can happen when the package in the repository has been changed instead of releasing a new package with a new version number. This will typically not happen for the official repositories, but it might happen for third-party repositories.

In this case, there are only two solutions: Bypass the proxy or remove the old file from the proxy's cache. In the case of Apt-Cacher-NG, this can be achived by going to the web interface, checking the “Validate by file name AND file directory (use with care),” and “then validate file contents through checksum (SLOW), also detecting corrupt files,” options and clicking “Start Scan and/or Expiration”. This scan should detect the broken packages, which can then be selected by checking “Tag” next to each package and subsequently deleted by clicking “Delete selected files”.