install-apt: fail fast with a clear message when the registry has no Release file

scripts/install-apt.sh

@@ -88,6 +88,19 @@ echo "deb [signed-by=$KEYRING] $FORGE_URL/api/packages/$OWNER/debian $DISTRIBUTI
 # read these.
 $SUDO chmod 0644 "$KEYRING" "$LIST"
 
+# Fail fast with a clear message when the registry has no package published
+# yet: without a Release file, `apt-get update` would only fail with a
+# generic "repository does not have a Release file" error. A definitive 404
+# is fatal; any other curl outcome (e.g. a network hiccup) is left for
+# apt-get update to report.
+RELEASE_URL="$FORGE_URL/api/packages/$OWNER/debian/dists/$DISTRIBUTION/Release"
+if [ "$(curl -sSL -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' "$RELEASE_URL" || true)" = "404" ]; then
+  echo "error: no stoke package has been published to the $OWNER Debian registry yet" >&2
+  echo "($RELEASE_URL returned 404)." >&2
+  echo "Install stoke via npm or manually instead — see the README." >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 # Newer apt verifies with sqv (Sequoia), which rejects the signature Forgejo
 # currently produces for its Debian registry (malformed Ed25519 MPI encoding
 # in the upstream signing library). Try the properly signed source first so

test/install-apt.test.js

@@ -12,12 +12,13 @@ const SCRIPT = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'scripts', 'install-apt.sh');
 //   candInitial        `apt-cache policy` Candidate before any update
 //   candAfterUpdate    Candidate after any `apt-get update`
 //   candAfterNodesource Candidate after an update once nodesource.list exists
+//   releaseStatus      HTTP status curl reports for the registry Release file
 // The apt-cache stub localizes the "Candidate:" label unless LC_ALL=C is set,
 // so every scenario doubles as a regression test for locale-safe parsing.
 const cleanups = [];
 process.on('exit', () => { for (const dir of cleanups) fs.rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true }); });
 
-function runScenario({ candInitial, candAfterUpdate, candAfterNodesource, preexistingNodesourceList }) {
+function runScenario({ candInitial, candAfterUpdate, candAfterNodesource, preexistingNodesourceList, releaseStatus }) {
   const root = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'stoke-apt-test-'));
   cleanups.push(root);
   const bin = path.join(root, 'bin');
@@ -39,7 +40,14 @@ function runScenario({ candInitial, candAfterUpdate, candAfterNodesource, preexi
   // Force the non-root path so every mutation goes through the sudo stub.
   stub('id', 'echo 1000');
   stub('sudo', 'exec "$@"');
-  stub('curl', 'echo "FAKE-KEY"');
+  // Registry Release-file probes (URLs under /dists/) answer with the
+  // scenario's HTTP status; everything else is a key fetch.
+  stub('curl', [
+    'for a in "$@"; do',
+    '  case "$a" in */dists/*) echo "${RELEASE_STATUS:-200}"; exit 0;; esac',
+    'done',
+    'echo "FAKE-KEY"',
+  ].join('\n'));
   stub('stoke', 'echo 1.2.0');
   stub('apt-cache', [
     'cand="$(cat "$STATE_DIR/candidate")"',
@@ -73,6 +81,7 @@ function runScenario({ candInitial, candAfterUpdate, candAfterNodesource, preexi
       STATE_DIR: state,
       CAND_AFTER_UPDATE: candAfterUpdate || '',
       CAND_AFTER_NODESOURCE: candAfterNodesource || '',
+      RELEASE_STATUS: releaseStatus || '',
       LC_ALL: 'es_ES.UTF-8', // localized environment; the script must force C
     },
   });
@@ -147,3 +156,18 @@ test('pre-existing user-managed nodesource.list is never overwritten', () => {
   assert.equal(s.nodesourceList, marker);
   assert.doesNotMatch(s.aptGetLog, /install -y stoke/);
 });
+
+test('registry Release file 404s: fails fast with a clear message before apt runs', () => {
+  const s = runScenario({ candInitial: '22.23.1-1nodesource1', releaseStatus: '404' });
+  assert.notEqual(s.res.status, 0);
+  assert.match(s.res.stderr, /no stoke package has been published/);
+  assert.match(s.res.stderr, /npm/);
+  assert.match(s.res.stderr, /dists\/stable\/Release returned 404/);
+  assert.equal(s.aptGetLog, '', 'must abort before any apt-get invocation');
+});
+
+test('registry Release file present: proceeds with the install', () => {
+  const s = runScenario({ candInitial: '22.23.1-1nodesource1', releaseStatus: '200' });
+  assert.equal(s.res.status, 0, s.res.stderr);
+  assert.match(s.aptGetLog, /install -y stoke/);
+});