-<!doctype debiandoc system>
<!-- -*- mode: sgml; mode: fold -*- -->
+<!doctype debiandoc PUBLIC "-//DebianDoc//DTD DebianDoc//EN">
<book>
<title>Using APT Offline</title>
<author>Jason Gunthorpe <email>jgg@debian.org</email></author>
-<version>$Id: offline.sgml,v 1.1 1999/02/15 06:38:03 jgg Exp $</version>
+<version>$Id: offline.sgml,v 1.8 2003/02/12 15:06:41 doogie Exp $</version>
<abstract>
This document describes how to use APT in a non-networked environment,
-specificaly a 'sneaker-net' approach for performing upgrades.
+specifically a 'sneaker-net' approach for performing upgrades.
</abstract>
<copyright>
<p>
For more details, on Debian GNU/Linux systems, see the file
-/usr/doc/copyright/GPL for the full license.
+/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL for the full license.
</copyright>
<toc sect>
<p>
The solution to this is to use large removable media such as a Zip disc or a
SuperDisk disc. These discs are not large enough to store the entire Debian
-archive but can easially fit a subset large enough for most users. The idea
+archive but can easily fit a subset large enough for most users. The idea
is to use APT to generate a list of packages that are required and then fetch
them onto the disc using another machine with good connectivity. It is
-even Possible to use another Debian machine with APT or to use a completely
-different OS and a download tool like wget.
+even possible to use another Debian machine with APT or to use a completely
+different OS and a download tool like wget. Let <em>remote host</em> mean the
+machine downloading the packages, and <em>target host</em> the one with bad or
+no connection.
<p>
-This is achived by creatively manipulating the APT configuration file. The
+This is achieved by creatively manipulating the APT configuration file. The
essential premis to tell APT to look on a disc for it's archive files. Note
that the disc should be formated with a filesystem that can handle long file
names such as ext2, fat32 or vfat.
The configuration file should tell APT to store its files on the disc and
to use the configuration files on the disc as well. The sources.list should
contain the proper sites that you wish to use from the remote machine, and
-the status file should be a copy of <em>/var/lib/dpkg/status</em>. Please note,
-if you are using a local archive you must use copy URIs, the syntax is identical
-to file URIs.
+the status file should be a copy of <em>/var/lib/dpkg/status</em> from the
+<em>target host</em>. Please note, if you are using a local archive you must use
+copy URIs, the syntax is identical to file URIs.
<p>
<em>apt.conf</em> must contain the necessary information to make APT use the
APT
{
/* This is not necessary if the two machines are the same arch, it tells
- the remote APT what architecture the Debian machine is */
+ the remote APT what architecture the target machine is */
Architecture "i386";
Get::Download-Only "true";
State "/disc/";
State::status "status";
- // Binary caches will be stored localy
+ // Binary caches will be stored locally
Cache::archives "/disc/archives/";
-
+ Cache "/tmp/";
+
// Location of the source list.
Etc "/disc/";
};
</example>
More details can be seen by examining the apt.conf man page and the sample
-configuration file in <em>/usr/doc/apt/examples/apt.conf</em>.
+configuration file in <em>/usr/share/doc/apt/examples/apt.conf</em>.
<p>
-On the Debian machine the first thing to do is mount the disc and copy
+On the target machine the first thing to do is mount the disc and copy
<em>/var/lib/dpkg/status</em> to it. You will also need to create the directories
outlined in the Overview, <em>archives/partial/</em> and <em>lists/partial/</em>
Then take the disc to the remote machine and configure the sources.list.
# apt-get update
[ APT fetches the package files ]
# apt-get dist-upgrade
- [ APT fetches all the packages needed to upgrade your machine ]
+ [ APT fetches all the packages needed to upgrade the target machine ]
</example>
The dist-upgrade command can be replaced with any-other standard APT commands,
-you can even use an APT front end such as <em>gnome-apt</em> [still in
-development].
+particularly dselect-upgrade. You can even use an APT front end such as
+<em>dselect</em> However this presents a problem in communicating your
+selections back to the local computer.
<p>
Now the disc contains all of the index files and archives needed to upgrade
-the Debian machine. Take the disc back and run:
+the target machine. Take the disc back and run:
<example>
# export APT_CONFIG="/disc/apt.conf"
# apt-get check
[ APT generates a local copy of the cache files ]
- # apt-get --no-d -o dir::etc::status=/var/lib/dpkg/status dist-upgrade
+ # apt-get --no-d -o dir::state::status=/var/lib/dpkg/status dist-upgrade
[ Or any other APT command ]
</example>
It is necessary for proper function to re-specify the status file to be the
local one. This is very important!
+<p>
+If you are using dselect you can do the very risky operation of copying
+disc/status to /var/lib/dpkg/status so that any selections you made on the
+remote machine are updated. I highly recommend that people only make selections
+on the local machine - but this may not always be possible. DO NOT copy
+the status file if dpkg or APT have been run in the mean time!!
+
</sect>
<!-- }}} -->
<sect>Operation
<p>
-Unlike the previous techinque no special configuration files are required. We
-mearly use the standard APT commands to generate the file list.
+Unlike the previous technique no special configuration files are required. We
+merely use the standard APT commands to generate the file list.
<example>
# apt-get dist-upgrade
# awk '{print "wget -O " $2 " " $1}' < uris > /disc/wget-script
</example>
+Any command other than dist-upgrade could be used here, including
+dselect-upgrade.
+
+<p>
The /disc/wget-script file will now contain a list of wget commands to execute
in order to fetch the necessary archives. This script should be run with the
current directory as the disc's mount point so as to save the output on the
projects / apt.git / blobdiff