Control: tags -1 + moreinfo
Hi Micha, 2006-03-19 03:57 Micha:
Package: aptitude Version: 0.4.1 Hello, I use aptitude to control a cache that is a repository (or proxy cache). On a LAN of several laptops and PCs, i use aptitude with apt sources pointing to a dedicated 'apt-proxy' packages server, within the LAN, which delivers packages from a cache, requesting them from internet sources only if necessary. The proxy allows fine-tuning of the versions to keep available locally, and is speeding up download very much for any further than the first one. It is very confortable to update different laptops this way, at LAN speed. Especially if your download link is only ADSL1000, which is quite widepsread nowadays in Europe. Another cool thing is, i can install apt-proxy on a laptop, too, and use that to do updates or even installations on boxes which have no internet connection at all (or maybe only modem dialup per phoneline). I think it would be possible to do nearly the same with a simple /var/cache/apt only, configuring that as LAND repository for the other machines. Anyway. The problem is i have to provide all necessary packages on this laptop, which menas o have top keep lots of installed which i never there. I i could mark packages in aptitude on the PC with the main packages server as 'Download Only' then i could mark anything i ever may need, on any laptop or machine to install, and then just copy the cache to a laptop (eventually running apt-proxy too) when i need it anywhere else, at places with no [fast] connection. Another benefit is, i could do the 'slow' regular update from the internet sources once at one computer, where updating laptops would always run at LAN speed. It also relieves much load from the WAN link, too (this is a WLAN behind a router, shaed by several parties). The 'download only' marker would imply that it is not installed, so it's a kind of special 'update' flag, with no dependency trigger: Of course, only a previously installed version would be relevant for depencency management. I don't know how that could be implemented in the aptitude package database. Best would be, not at all :) just add the flag and regard this when performaing any update actions.
Possibly I am missing something, but isn't it more practical to have a simple list of packages that you want to download in a text file, and "aptitude download"them on demand, to keep them fresh (or the same with apt)? Additionally, if you use /var/cache/apt/archives as download area, the auto-clean commands will clean older versions, and should you need to install them in the machine where you download them, they will be already there. As I said, possibly I am missing something, but I don't see the need of more special machinery in this case. If you need more complex solutions there are also apt-cacher, apt-cacher-ng, approx and probably many others to use as proxys/caches -- I don't have experience with them, but many people use them for similar use cases. Cheers. -- Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <[email protected]> _______________________________________________ Aptitude-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aptitude-devel
