As previously mentioned on this list, where I work, we have a sizeable chunk of infrastructure that can't connect out to a Debian mirror[1]
One of my colleages has written a script, which works on the /var/lib/dpkg/status file on a host that may require updating comparing it against the /var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_debian-security_dists_stable_updates_*Packages files and then generating a list along with the appropriate DSAs, of the packages that require updating. This would be made easier if the DSA's were obtainable in a more parseable format. Currently they're being retrieved from http://www.debian.org/security/ via a recursive wget. Would it be possible, and would it be beneficial to anyone else, if they were made available individually via rsync? Andrew [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2003/debian-devel-200305/msg00468.html