Sharing apt cache across multiple machines

[Mark Purcell]

On Fri, Nov 23, 2001 at 02:19:52PM +1100, James Macnicol wrote:
> Hello,

Hi James,

> 	I have a laptop with the bleeding-edge Debian on it which I
> occasionally take to a place with readily available bandwidth to
> update to the latest set of packages.  My desktop machine at home,
> unfortunately, only has 56k modem connectivity and thus keeping it up
> to date is a hassle.  Since all the downloaded .deb files are kept in
> /var/cache/apt/archive (or whatever it's called) 

You can safely copy all the files from /var/cache/apt/archive from your
laptop to your desktop, leave in the same place.  Then your desktop will
try and use these files first rather than try and download the same version.

> I would like to use
> this to update my desktop box when it is connected to my laptop via
> Ethernet.  Has anyone seen a definitive set of instructions on how to
> do this ?  I'm thinking that there would be a number of other things
> that would need to be made available such as the latest list of
> packages for this to work.  This must be a common thing to want to do,
> but I can't find the answer....

The only trouble is if the package versions change then you might need to do
and apt-get update on your desktop via modem to download the Packages file
(~1.5 Mb) and then your desktop will utilise the .deb's you have saved in
/var/cache/apt/archive.

Alternativly you might want to look at installing the the apt-zip
package.

Mark

apt-zip - Update a non-networked computer using apt and removable media

These scripts simplify the process of using dselect and apt on a non-networked Debian box,
using removable media like ZIP floppies. One generates a `fetch' script (supporting backends
such as wget and lftp, in a modular, extensible way) to be run on a host with better
connectivity, check space constraints of your removable media, and then install the package on
your Debian box.