net problems (can't find stata.toc)

[Paul Dickman]

Can anyone shed any light on the following.

In the first command I specify the HTTP directory and the server redirects to HTTPS but doesn't find the TOC file.

In the second command, I specify the HTTPS directory and all is good.

. net from http://www.pauldickman.com/strs/
file http://www.pauldickman.com/strs/stata.toc not found
server says file permanently redirected to https://www.pauldickman.com/strs/stata.toc
http://www.pauldickman.com/strs/ either
  1)  is not a valid URL, or
  2)  could not be contacted, or
  3)  is not a Stata download site (has no stata.toc file).

current site is still https://www.pauldickman.com/strs/
r(601);

. net from https://www.pauldickman.com/strs/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.pauldickman.com/strs/
Stata programs by Paul Dickman and Enzo Coviello
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PACKAGES you could -net describe-:
    strs              Commands for estimating and modelling relative survival
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm guessing this is a server problem (rather than a Stata problem) but I thought I'd ask here in case it is somehow Stata related. I just migrated my webite; previously I built it locally using hugo and deployed via ftp but I migrated so it now deploys from github using netlify. As far as I can see, serving my site in this way is somewhat of a black box (I don't think I can see the files being served let alone the server config files that handle redirects).

The following is even stranger. The .toc file cleary exists, but when I specify only a directory the server redirects to the parent of that directory.

. net describe https://www.pauldickman.com/strs/stata.toc

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
package stata.toc from https://www.pauldickman.com/strs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TITLE
      Stata programs by Paul Dickman and Enzo Coviello

DESCRIPTION/AUTHOR(S)
      p strs Commands for estimating and modelling relative survival

INSTALLATION AND ANCILLARY FILES
      (none)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

. net describe https://www.pauldickman.com/strs/
file https://www.pauldickman.com/stata.toc not found
https://www.pauldickman.com/ either
  1)  is not a valid URL, or
  2)  could not be contacted, or
  3)  is not a Stata download site (has no stata.toc file).

current site is still https://www.pauldickman.com/strs/
r(601);

I only migrated 12 hours ago, and it's possible these problems may be related to DNS changes not being fully propagated.

As it is, users can't install or update my commands.

And yes, I should have tested this before migrating. I used my new site for a week on a test server, but this was an aspect I neglected to test.

[Nick Cox]

I confirm seeing the same from a user end.

My only wild guess is that you may need explicit end-of-line character or characters s at the end of the .toc file.

[Paul Dickman]

Thanks Nick. I tried that, but it didn't solve the problem. I did, however, learn more about .toc files.

However, the first error (net from http://www.pauldickman.com/strs/) no longer occurs for me (although I still get the second error).

Maybe it's just a matter of waiting until DNS changes fully propagate.