APT: how to dwnld already debs...

1999-06-22 Thread churasco
howdie, this must be a simple faq... but haven't found it in any documentation:

How to do you ask apt-get to download all the .deb files necessary for a
given package, if that package is already installed on your machine? I've
tried apt-get -d install SOME-PACKAGE but it works only for those
packages which are not yet installed on my machine. For those packages that
are already installed, it just tells me they are installed...

Here is the more detailed scenario: I have two machines, an officeMachine
and a homeMachine. officeMachine is connected to the net and has debian
installed. homeMachine is not connected to the net (and has no cd-rom), and
has no debian (yet). The two machines share files through zip disks. The
goal is thus to dwnld packages (X11, gnome, etc.)  with officeMachine, put
them on a zip, and install at home.

Short of making a mini-mirror of ftp.debian.org on my hd/zip, it has been a
no-go for the moment...

thanks! churrasco



Re: APT: how to dwnld already debs...

1999-06-22 Thread Jonathan D. Proulx
Hi,

You can repack your installed .deb's with dpkg-repack.

You could also mount the CD on officeMachine (or use ftp) and copy the .deb's 
to the zip drive.

I have a simmilar set-up and use the above two methods.  Sometimes a deb gets 
left out, but apt will let you know when when you try to install
 
If you are looking to simply mirror officeMachine to homeMachine you could 
simply set-up officeMachine then tar everything to the zip drive...tar -M -cf 
/dev/zip drive will create a multi-volume archive.

HTH,
Jon

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Re: APT: how to dwnld already debs...

1999-06-22 Thread David Wright
Quoting churasco ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
 howdie, this must be a simple faq... but haven't found it in any 
 documentation:
 
 How to do you ask apt-get to download all the .deb files necessary for a
 given package, if that package is already installed on your machine? I've
 tried apt-get -d install SOME-PACKAGE but it works only for those
 packages which are not yet installed on my machine. For those packages that
 are already installed, it just tells me they are installed...
 
 Here is the more detailed scenario: I have two machines, an officeMachine
 and a homeMachine. officeMachine is connected to the net and has debian
 installed. homeMachine is not connected to the net (and has no cd-rom), and
 has no debian (yet). The two machines share files through zip disks. The
 goal is thus to dwnld packages (X11, gnome, etc.)  with officeMachine, put
 them on a zip, and install at home.
 
 Short of making a mini-mirror of ftp.debian.org on my hd/zip, it has been a
 no-go for the moment...

The way I find easiest is to start by editing the file
/usr/lib/dpkg/methods/apt and changing apt-clean to
true. You can do this on VC2 as root as early in the
installation procedure as possible, but in any case
before the package selection stage.

Then, after dselect has finished its downloading and
during the unpacking stage (I always just accept the
defaults), I copy /var/cache/apt/archives/*deb to
wherever. I keep them in batches in separate directories
so they're easy to dpkg -i *deb on other machines,
though I have a python script to recreate a distribution
tree using a Packages file.

Of course, you need to clean the cache yourself between
each batch of debs. You might not like this method...

Cheers,

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