In commit bbc301f2f0 the generalized
`Exception` was changed back to the more specific `HTTPError`.
In this case we do not desire specific error handling. If the connection
to the database fails I want the exception handled in the way outlined:
i.e., i want the connection to be retried 4 times before giving up. With
`HTTPError`, only `HTTPError`s warrent a retry.
Changing this to `HTTPError` cause tests to fail due to a failure to
retry downloading of a resource. Here is an example:
https://github.com/gem5/gem5/actions/runs/6521543885/job/17710779784
In this case `request.urlopen` raised a `URLError`. I suspect this was
some issued to do with reaching the DNS servers. It likely would've
succeeded if it had just tried again.
a9464a41f5