Concerning problems with updates from mirror.ctan

[Robert]

On 26.04.21 18:20, Karl Berry wrote:
> 
> I surmise the system curl also does not support https?

No, I think it does support it:

| $ curl --version
curl 7.54.0 (x86_64-apple-darwin16.0) libcurl/7.54.0 SecureTransport 
zlib/1.2.8
| Protocols: dict file ftp ftps gopher http https imap imaps ldap ldaps 
pop3 pop3s rtsp smb smbs smtp smtps telnet tftp
| Features: AsynchDNS IPv6 Largefile GSS-API Kerberos SPNEGO NTLM 
NTLM_WB SSL libz UnixSockets

which would explain why it works with a manually given repo.

However, when accessing the mirror.ctan.org link, tlmgr explicitly calls 
wget, not curl:

https://github.com/TeX-Live/installer/blob/157d34e36d4dffcc92d4fa2313fe23b9c889a711/tlpkg/TeXLive/TLUtils.pm#L3910

Best,
-- 
  Robert