[Bug] qt-creator and qt-creator-cdb-ext fail to install/update due to slow/unreliable Qt mirrors — switch to GitHub releases

[e-gleba]

Summary

The qt-creator and qt-creator-cdb-ext manifests currently download from the Qt official mirror (download.qt.io). These mirrors are often slow, rate-limited, or unreliable for users in certain regions, causing frequent scoop install/scoop update failures.

Proposal

Switch the download URLs to the official Qt Creator GitHub releases (https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/releases). GitHub's CDN is significantly more reliable and faster globally.

Current manifests

The current qt-creator manifest uses:

"url": "https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qtcreator/19.0/19.0.1/installer_source/windows_x64/qtcreator.7z"

The current qt-creator-cdb-ext manifest similarly uses Qt's official mirror for the CDB debugger extension.

Suggested manifests (examples)

Below are reference manifests showing the proposed structure (versions may differ):

qt-creator.json

{
    "version": "19.0.1",
    "description": "IDE for development with the Qt framework",
    "homepage": "https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/index.html",
    "license": "GPL-3.0-only",
    "suggest": {
        "vcredist": "extras/vcredist2022"
    },
    "architecture": {
        "64bit": {
            "url": "https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/releases/download/v19.0.1/qtcreator-windows-x64-msvc-19.0.1.7z"
        }
    },
    "bin": "bin\\qtcreator.exe",
    "shortcuts": [
        [
            "bin\\qtcreator.exe",
            "Qt Creator"
        ]
    ],
    "checkver": {
        "url": "https://www.qt.io/offline-installers",
        "regex": "Qt Creator\\s+([\\d.]+)\\s+for Windows"
    },
    "autoupdate": {
        "architecture": {
            "64bit": {
                "url": "https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/releases/download/v$version/qtcreator-windows-x64-msvc-$version.7z"
            }
        },
        "hash": {
            "url": "$baseurl/md5sums.txt"
        }
    }
}

qt-creator-cdb-ext.json

{
    "version": "19.0.1",
    "description": "Qt Creator CDB Debugger Support",
    "homepage": "https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/index.html",
    "license": "GPL-3.0-only",
    "depends": "extras/qt-creator",
    "architecture": {
        "64bit": {
            "url": "https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/releases/download/v19.0.1/qtcreatorcdbext-windows-x64-msvc-19.0.1.7z"
        }
    },
    "post_install": [
        "Remove-Item \"$(appdir qt-creator $global)\\current\\lib\\qtcreatorcdbext*\" -Force -Recurse",
        "(Get-Item $dir\\lib\\qtcreatorcdbext*).Name | foreach { New-Item \"$(appdir qt-creator $global)\\current\\lib\\$_\" -ItemType Junction -Target \"$dir\\lib\\$_\" -Force | Out-Null }"
    ],
    "checkver": {
        "url": "https://www.qt.io/offline-installers",
        "regex": "Qt Creator\\s+([\\d.]+)\\s+for Windows"
    },
    "autoupdate": {
        "architecture": {
            "64bit": {
                "url": "https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/releases/download/v$version/qtcreatorcdbext-windows-x64-msvc-$version.7z"
            }
        },
        "hash": {
            "url": "$baseurl/md5sums.txt"
        }
    }
}

Benefits

• Improved reliability: GitHub releases are served via a robust CDN with fewer regional restrictions.
• Consistency: Many other Scoop packages already use GitHub releases.
• Qt's own publishing: The Qt project itself publishes these artifacts on GitHub, so this is an official source.

Files affected

• bucket/qt-creator.json
• bucket/qt-creator-cdb-ext.json

Thank you for considering this change!

[z-Fng]

The release distributed on GitHub differs from the one on the official website. This change may disrupt other users' workflows.

• https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/releases/tag/v19.0.1

These packages are not officially supported, for official packages please check out https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qtcreator

Consider using aria2 to enable multi-threaded downloads. For more information:

• https://github.com/ScoopInstaller/Scoop/blob/master/README.md#multi-connection-downloads-with-aria2

[e-gleba]

Hi @z-Fng, thanks for the quick response and for pointing out the disclaimer on the GitHub releases — I hadn't noticed the "not officially supported" note on the release page.

That said, the qt-creator GitHub organization is itself the official mirror of the qt-project.org qt-creator/ git repositories, so the source is still official Qt project infrastructure. The main pain point is that download.qt.io mirrors are genuinely unreliable for many users (slow, rate-limited, or outright unavailable depending on region), which makes the current manifest frustrating to use.

Would you be open to a compromise: adding a separate manifest (e.g. qt-creator-github or qt-creator-mirror) that fetches from GitHub releases, while keeping the existing qt-creator manifest pointed at the official Qt mirrors? This way users who need the reliability of GitHub's CDN can opt in, without disrupting anyone who prefers or requires the official binaries.

If that sounds reasonable, could this issue be reopened to discuss the details? I'm happy to open a PR with the separate manifest if that's preferred.

Thanks again for maintaining this package!

[z-Fng]

Would you be open to a compromise: adding a separate manifest (e.g. qt-creator-github or qt-creator-mirror) that fetches from GitHub releases, while keeping the existing qt-creator manifest pointed at the official Qt mirrors? This way users who need the reliability of GitHub's CDN can opt in, without disrupting anyone who prefers or requires the official binaries.

Consider adding a qt-creator-git/qt-creator-cdb-ext-git package to the Versions bucket.

If that sounds reasonable, could this issue be reopened to discuss the details? I'm happy to open a PR with the separate manifest if that's preferred.

PRs are welcome.