| 1 | <!-- -*- mode: sgml; mode: fold -*- --> |
| 2 | <!doctype debiandoc PUBLIC "-//DebianDoc//DTD DebianDoc//EN"> |
| 3 | <book> |
| 4 | <title>Using APT Offline</title> |
| 5 | |
| 6 | <author>Jason Gunthorpe <email>jgg@debian.org</email></author> |
| 7 | <version>$Id: offline.sgml,v 1.5 2002/09/15 23:14:34 jgg Exp $</version> |
| 8 | |
| 9 | <abstract> |
| 10 | This document describes how to use APT in a non-networked environment, |
| 11 | specifically a 'sneaker-net' approach for performing upgrades. |
| 12 | </abstract> |
| 13 | |
| 14 | <copyright> |
| 15 | Copyright © Jason Gunthorpe, 1999. |
| 16 | <p> |
| 17 | "APT" and this document are free software; you can redistribute them and/or |
| 18 | modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published |
| 19 | by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your |
| 20 | option) any later version. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | <p> |
| 23 | For more details, on Debian GNU/Linux systems, see the file |
| 24 | /usr/doc/copyright/GPL for the full license. |
| 25 | </copyright> |
| 26 | |
| 27 | <toc sect> |
| 28 | |
| 29 | <chapt>Introduction |
| 30 | <!-- Overview {{{ --> |
| 31 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 32 | <sect>Overview |
| 33 | |
| 34 | <p> |
| 35 | Normally APT requires direct access to a Debian archive, either from a local |
| 36 | media or through a network. Another common complaint is that a Debian machine |
| 37 | is on a slow link, such as a modem and another machine has a very fast |
| 38 | connection but they are physically distant. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | <p> |
| 41 | The solution to this is to use large removable media such as a Zip disc or a |
| 42 | SuperDisk disc. These discs are not large enough to store the entire Debian |
| 43 | archive but can easily fit a subset large enough for most users. The idea |
| 44 | is to use APT to generate a list of packages that are required and then fetch |
| 45 | them onto the disc using another machine with good connectivity. It is |
| 46 | even possible to use another Debian machine with APT or to use a completely |
| 47 | different OS and a download tool like wget. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | <p> |
| 50 | This is achieved by creatively manipulating the APT configuration file. The |
| 51 | essential premis to tell APT to look on a disc for it's archive files. Note |
| 52 | that the disc should be formated with a filesystem that can handle long file |
| 53 | names such as ext2, fat32 or vfat. |
| 54 | |
| 55 | </sect> |
| 56 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 57 | |
| 58 | <chapt>Using APT on both machines |
| 59 | <!-- Overview {{{ --> |
| 60 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 61 | <sect>Overview |
| 62 | |
| 63 | <p> |
| 64 | APT being available on both machines gives the simplest configuration. The |
| 65 | basic idea is to place a copy of the status file on the disc and use the |
| 66 | remote machine to fetch the latest package files and decide which packages to |
| 67 | download. The disk directory structure should look like: |
| 68 | |
| 69 | <example> |
| 70 | /disc/ |
| 71 | archives/ |
| 72 | partial/ |
| 73 | lists/ |
| 74 | partial/ |
| 75 | status |
| 76 | sources.list |
| 77 | apt.conf |
| 78 | </example> |
| 79 | |
| 80 | </sect> |
| 81 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 82 | <!-- The configuartion file {{{ --> |
| 83 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 84 | <sect>The configuration file |
| 85 | |
| 86 | <p> |
| 87 | The configuration file should tell APT to store its files on the disc and |
| 88 | to use the configuration files on the disc as well. The sources.list should |
| 89 | contain the proper sites that you wish to use from the remote machine, and |
| 90 | the status file should be a copy of <em>/var/lib/dpkg/status</em>. Please note, |
| 91 | if you are using a local archive you must use copy URIs, the syntax is identical |
| 92 | to file URIs. |
| 93 | |
| 94 | <p> |
| 95 | <em>apt.conf</em> must contain the necessary information to make APT use the |
| 96 | disc: |
| 97 | |
| 98 | <example> |
| 99 | APT |
| 100 | { |
| 101 | /* This is not necessary if the two machines are the same arch, it tells |
| 102 | the remote APT what architecture the Debian machine is */ |
| 103 | Architecture "i386"; |
| 104 | |
| 105 | Get::Download-Only "true"; |
| 106 | }; |
| 107 | |
| 108 | Dir |
| 109 | { |
| 110 | /* Use the disc for state information and redirect the status file from |
| 111 | the /var/lib/dpkg default */ |
| 112 | State "/disc/"; |
| 113 | State::status "status"; |
| 114 | |
| 115 | // Binary caches will be stored locally |
| 116 | Cache::archives "/disc/archives/"; |
| 117 | Cache "/tmp/"; |
| 118 | |
| 119 | // Location of the source list. |
| 120 | Etc "/disc/"; |
| 121 | }; |
| 122 | </example> |
| 123 | |
| 124 | More details can be seen by examining the apt.conf man page and the sample |
| 125 | configuration file in <em>/usr/doc/apt/examples/apt.conf</em>. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | <p> |
| 128 | On the remote Debian machine the first thing to do is mount the disc and copy |
| 129 | <em>/var/lib/dpkg/status</em> to it. You will also need to create the directories |
| 130 | outlined in the Overview, <em>archives/partial/</em> and <em>lists/partial/</em> |
| 131 | Then take the disc to the remote machine and configure the sources.list. |
| 132 | On the remote machine execute the following: |
| 133 | |
| 134 | <example> |
| 135 | # export APT_CONFIG="/disc/apt.conf" |
| 136 | # apt-get update |
| 137 | [ APT fetches the package files ] |
| 138 | # apt-get dist-upgrade |
| 139 | [ APT fetches all the packages needed to upgrade your machine ] |
| 140 | </example> |
| 141 | |
| 142 | The dist-upgrade command can be replaced with any-other standard APT commands, |
| 143 | particularly dselect-upgrad. You can even use an APT front end such as |
| 144 | <em>dselect</em> However this presents a problem in communicating your |
| 145 | selections back to the local computer. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | <p> |
| 148 | Now the disc contains all of the index files and archives needed to upgrade |
| 149 | the Debian machine. Take the disc back and run: |
| 150 | |
| 151 | <example> |
| 152 | # export APT_CONFIG="/disc/apt.conf" |
| 153 | # apt-get check |
| 154 | [ APT generates a local copy of the cache files ] |
| 155 | # apt-get --no-d -o dir::etc::status=/var/lib/dpkg/status dist-upgrade |
| 156 | [ Or any other APT command ] |
| 157 | </example> |
| 158 | |
| 159 | <p> |
| 160 | It is necessary for proper function to re-specify the status file to be the |
| 161 | local one. This is very important! |
| 162 | |
| 163 | <p> |
| 164 | If you are using dselect you can do the very risky operation of copying |
| 165 | disc/status to /var/lib/dpkg/status so that any selections you made on the |
| 166 | remote machine are updated. I highly recommend that people only make selections |
| 167 | on the local machine - but this may not always be possible. DO NOT copy |
| 168 | the status file if dpkg or APT have been run in the mean time!! |
| 169 | |
| 170 | </sect> |
| 171 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 172 | |
| 173 | <chapt>Using APT and wget |
| 174 | <!-- Overview {{{ --> |
| 175 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 176 | <sect>Overview |
| 177 | |
| 178 | <p> |
| 179 | <em>wget</em> is a popular and portable download tool that can run on nearly |
| 180 | any machine. Unlike the method above this requires that the Debian machine |
| 181 | already has a list of available packages. |
| 182 | |
| 183 | <p> |
| 184 | The basic idea is to create a disc that has only the archive files downloaded |
| 185 | from the remote site. This is done by using the --print-uris option to apt-get |
| 186 | and then preparing a wget script to actually fetch the packages. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | </sect> |
| 189 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 190 | <!-- Operation {{{ --> |
| 191 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 192 | <sect>Operation |
| 193 | |
| 194 | <p> |
| 195 | Unlike the previous technique no special configuration files are required. We |
| 196 | merely use the standard APT commands to generate the file list. |
| 197 | |
| 198 | <example> |
| 199 | # apt-get dist-upgrade |
| 200 | [ Press no when prompted, make sure you are happy with the actions ] |
| 201 | # apt-get -qq --print-uris dist-upgrade > uris |
| 202 | # awk '{print "wget -O " $2 " " $1}' < uris > /disc/wget-script |
| 203 | </example> |
| 204 | |
| 205 | Any command other than dist-upgrade could be used here, including |
| 206 | dselect-upgrade. |
| 207 | |
| 208 | <p> |
| 209 | The /disc/wget-script file will now contain a list of wget commands to execute |
| 210 | in order to fetch the necessary archives. This script should be run with the |
| 211 | current directory as the disc's mount point so as to save the output on the |
| 212 | disc. |
| 213 | |
| 214 | <p> |
| 215 | The remote machine would do something like |
| 216 | |
| 217 | <example> |
| 218 | # cd /disc |
| 219 | # sh -x ./wget-script |
| 220 | [ wait.. ] |
| 221 | </example> |
| 222 | |
| 223 | Once the archives are downloaded and the disc returned to the Debian machine |
| 224 | installation can proceed using, |
| 225 | |
| 226 | <example> |
| 227 | # apt-get -o dir::cache::archives="/disc/" dist-upgrade |
| 228 | </example> |
| 229 | |
| 230 | Which will use the already fetched archives on the disc. |
| 231 | |
| 232 | </sect> |
| 233 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 234 | </book> |