Rate Mirrors

A fast mirror ranking tool that finds the best mirrors for your Linux distribution. It uses submarine cable and internet exchange data to intelligently hop between countries and discover fast mirrors in ~30 seconds.

Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Installation
• Supported Distributions
• Usage
• Common Options
• Algorithm
• Examples
• Exit Codes
• License

Quick Start

# Arch Linux
rate-mirrors arch | sudo tee /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# Manjaro
rate-mirrors manjaro | sudo tee /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# With backup
export TMPFILE="$(mktemp)"; \
    rate-mirrors --save=$TMPFILE arch --max-delay=21600 \
    && sudo mv /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-backup \
    && sudo mv $TMPFILE /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# See all options
rate-mirrors --help

Installation

Platform	Command	Notes
Arch Linux (default)	sudo pacman -S rate-mirrors	Pre-built, dynamically linked glibc
Arch Linux (AUR, binary)	yay -S rate-mirrors-bin	Pre-built, statically linked musl
Arch Linux (AUR, source)	yay -S rate-mirrors-git	Build from source, dynamically linked glibc
OpenBSD	pkg_add rate-mirrors	From ports
GitHub Releases	Download	Pre-built binaries
From source	cargo build --release --locked	Requires Rust toolchain

Supported Distributions

Arch-based

Command	Distribution	Notes
rate-mirrors arch	Arch Linux	Skips outdated/syncing mirrors
rate-mirrors arch4edu	Arch4edu
rate-mirrors archarm	Arch Linux ARM
rate-mirrors arcolinux	ArcoLinux
rate-mirrors artix	Artix Linux	Skips outdated/syncing mirrors
rate-mirrors blackarch	BlackArch Linux
rate-mirrors cachyos	CachyOS
rate-mirrors chaotic-aur	Chaotic-AUR	Arch Linux repository
rate-mirrors archlinuxcn	Arch Linux CN	Chinese community repo
rate-mirrors endeavouros	EndeavourOS	Skips outdated mirrors
rate-mirrors manjaro	Manjaro	Skips outdated mirrors
rate-mirrors rebornos	RebornOS

Other

Command	Distribution
rate-mirrors openbsd	OpenBSD
rate-mirrors stdin	Custom mirrors (see Advanced Usage)

Usage

rate-mirrors [OPTIONS] <SUBCOMMAND> [SUBCOMMAND-OPTIONS]

• Run rate-mirrors --help to see base options
• Run rate-mirrors <subcommand> --help to see subcommand-specific options
• The tool doesn't need root; use --allow-root if you must run as root

Common Options

Option	Description	Default
--save=FILE	Save output to file instead of stdout	-
--concurrency=N	Number of simultaneous speed tests	16
--max-jumps=N	Maximum country hops	7
--entry-country=CC	Starting country code	US
--exclude-countries=CC,CC	Exclude countries (comma-separated codes)	-
--include-countries=CC,CC	Include only listed countries (comma-separated codes; ZZ = unknown). Mutually exclusive with --exclude-countries	-
--protocol=PROTO	Test only specified protocol (http/https)	-
--max-mirrors-to-output=N	Maximum mirrors to output	-
--disable-comments	Disable printing comments	false
--disable-untested-fallback	Exit with error when all speed tests fail instead of outputting untested mirrors	false
--allow-root	Allow running as root	false

Subcommand Options (arch example)

Option	Description	Default
--completion=N	Minimum sync completion (0.0-1.0)	1.0
--sort-mirrors-by=MODE	Sort by: score_asc, score_desc, delay_asc, delay_desc	score_asc

Algorithm

The tool uses:

• Submarine cable connections data
• Internet exchange locations and counts per country
• Continental groupings for geographic proximity

How it works (arch example):

1. Fetch mirrors from Arch Linux Mirror Status
2. Filter out incomplete or outdated mirrors
3. Sort by mirror score
4. Starting from entry country, find neighbor countries using:
   • Major internet hubs (first two jumps)
   • Geographic proximity (every jump)
5. Test mirrors from each country, track fastest and lowest-latency
6. Jump to countries of best mirrors, repeat
7. After max jumps, re-test top mirrors sequentially and output final ranking

Data attribution: Submarine cable and IX data from TeleGeography.

Examples

Everyday use on Arch Linux

alias ua-drop-caches='sudo paccache -rk3; yay -Sc --aur --noconfirm'
alias ua-update-all='export TMPFILE="$(mktemp)"; \
    sudo true; \
    rate-mirrors --save=$TMPFILE arch --max-delay=21600 \
      && sudo mv /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist-backup \
      && sudo mv $TMPFILE /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist \
      && ua-drop-caches \
      && yay -Syyu --noconfirm'

Notes:

• sudo true prompts for password at the start
• paccache is from pacman-contrib
• yay is an AUR helper

Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc, then run ua-update-all.

Output example

# STARTED AT: 2025-08-31 14:04:21.217766 +03:00
# ARGS: rate-mirrors arch
# FETCHED MIRRORS: 1147
# MIRRORS LEFT AFTER FILTERING: 730
# JUMP #1
# EXPLORING US
#     + NEIGHBOR UK (by HubsFirst)
#     + NEIGHBOR DE (by DistanceFirst)
# [DE] SpeedTestResult { speed: 29.0 MB/s; elapsed: 1.00s; connection_time: 79ms }
# ...
# RE-TESTING TOP MIRRORS
# [SE] SpeedTestResult { speed: 64.6 MB/s; elapsed: 745ms; connection_time: 122ms }
# [BY] SpeedTestResult { speed: 61.2 MB/s; elapsed: 786ms; connection_time: 16ms }
# ==== RESULTS (top re-tested) ====
#   1. [SE] 64.6 MB/s -> https://mirror.osbeck.com/archlinux/
#   2. [BY] 61.2 MB/s -> http://mirror.datacenter.by/pub/archlinux/
#   3. [LT] 54.1 MB/s -> http://mirrors.atviras.lt/archlinux/
# FINISHED AT: 2025-08-31 14:04:40.296066 +03:00
Server = https://mirror.osbeck.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = http://mirror.datacenter.by/pub/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Server = http://mirrors.atviras.lt/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

Advanced Usage: stdin

For custom mirror lists or unsupported distributions:

# Input format (tab-separated):
# URL
# COUNTRY<tab>URL
# URL<tab>COUNTRY

cat mirrors.txt | rate-mirrors --concurrency=40 stdin \
    --path-to-test="extra/os/x86_64/extra.files" \
    --path-to-return='$repo/os/$arch' \
    --comment-prefix="# " \
    --output-prefix="Server = "

Example mirrors.txt:

https://mirror-a.example.org/repo/
US	https://mirror-b.example.org/repo/
https://mirror-c.example.org/repo/	DE

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Error (network failure, invalid arguments, etc.)

License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

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Previously known as "Rate Arch Mirrors" (changed in v0.4.0). View old README