Leap SLE update repo sloth

# grep ListColu /etc/zypp/zypper.conf
 /etc/zypp/zypper.conf: repoListColumns = au
# date
Wed Mar 29 12:55:16 EDT 2023
# zypper lr | grep http
 1 | FCL          | Yes     | ( p) Yes  | http://silk.apana.org.au/rpm-opensuse15-unstable-dev
 2 | NonOSS       | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.4/repo/non-oss/
 3 | OSS          | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.4/repo/oss/
 4 | PackmanE     | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/openSUSE_Leap_15.4/Essentials
 5 | TDE          | Yes     | (  ) No   | http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/rpm/opensuse15.4/trinity-r14/RPMS/x86_64
 6 | TDEnoarch    | Yes     | (  ) No   | http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/rpm/opensuse15.4/trinity-r14/RPMS/noarch
 7 | Update       | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.4/oss/
 8 | UpdateBP     | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.4/backports/
 9 | UpdateNonOSS | Yes     | ( p) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.4/non-oss/
10 | openh264     | Yes     | ( p) Yes  | http://codecs.opensuse.org/openh264/openSUSE_Leap/
# time zypper ref
Retrieving repository 'FCL' metadata .........................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'FCL' cache ..............................................................................................[done]
Repository 'NonOSS' is up to date.
Repository 'OSS' is up to date.
Retrieving repository 'PackmanE' metadata ....................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'PackmanE' cache .........................................................................................[done]
Repository 'TDE' is up to date.
Repository 'TDEnoarch' is up to date.
Retrieving repository 'Update' metadata ......................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'Update' cache ...........................................................................................[done]
Retrieving repository 'UpdateBP' metadata ....................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'UpdateBP' cache .........................................................................................[done]
Retrieving repository 'UpdateNonOSS' metadata ................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'UpdateNonOSS' cache .....................................................................................[done]
Retrieving repository 'openh264' metadata ....................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'openh264' cache .........................................................................................[done]
All repositories have been refreshed.

real    0m46.368s
user    0m2.762s
sys     0m1.473s
# date
Wed Mar 29 12:57:04 EDT 2023
# zypper lr | grep http
 1 | FCL          | Yes     | ( p) Yes  | http://silk.apana.org.au/rpm-opensuse15-unstable-dev
 2 | NonOSS       | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.4/repo/non-oss/
 3 | OSS          | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.4/repo/oss/
 4 | PackmanE     | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/openSUSE_Leap_15.4/Essentials
 5 | TDE          | Yes     | (  ) No   | http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/rpm/opensuse15.4/trinity-r14/RPMS/x86_64
 6 | TDEnoarch    | Yes     | (  ) No   | http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/rpm/opensuse15.4/trinity-r14/RPMS/noarch
 7 | Update       | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.4/oss/
 8 | UpdateBP     | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.4/backports/
 9 | UpdateNonOSS | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.4/non-oss/
10 | UpdateSLE    | Yes     | ( p) Yes  | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.4/sle/
11 | openh264     | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | http://codecs.opensuse.org/openh264/openSUSE_Leap/
# time zypper ref
Repository 'FCL' is up to date.
Repository 'NonOSS' is up to date.
Repository 'OSS' is up to date.
Repository 'PackmanE' is up to date.
Repository 'TDE' is up to date.
Repository 'TDEnoarch' is up to date.
Repository 'Update' is up to date.
Repository 'UpdateBP' is up to date.
Repository 'UpdateNonOSS' is up to date.
Retrieving repository 'UpdateSLE' metadata ...................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'UpdateSLE' cache ........................................................................................[done]
Repository 'openh264' is up to date.
All repositories have been refreshed.

real    1m40.633s
user    0m40.106s
sys     0m3.738s
# date
Wed Mar 29 12:59:03 EDT 2023

217% as long, using “real” times, to refresh SLE update repo, than to refresh all other repos combined, here in SE USA, on an old single thread 64bit PC. Since UpdateSLE is normally last to refresh, it makes the zypper lr process routinely seem to be hung. Is this behavior global? Correctable? Bug report worthy? Better suited to some other forum?

I remember we had long refresh times on the “SLE for openSUSE” repos earlier. Something was done and it was faster (although never really fast).
The last few days, and specially today they are very slow.