[Couldn't find any list related to apt-cacher or apt-cacher2, and I noticed some discussions of them on debian-devel, so I am CCing debian devel. But if there is a better place to discuss this, please point me to it, thanks!]
Hi Eduard and Jonathan, Recently we started using apt-cacher2 extensively and are very happy with it, great piece of work! In fact, we standardize Saegiri, our automated live CD build script, on apt-cacher (http://taprobane.org/saegiri.php). We found two cases where it could be a little better. Before getting hands dirty implementing any changes, I am very keen to hear some feedback / suggestions. We want to use apt-cacher in three different ways; the first one is how it behaves now, and we are looking for ways to get the other two behaviours. (I am just inventing some terminology here, just because we need names. :-) ) - Online: good for system updates. Looks like apt-cacher is making a HEAD request to see if Packages/Release files are out of date, which is the right thing. - Lazy online: we like apt-cacher to fetch a Packages/Release file only if it old as set by a timeout. So if one runs apt-get update many times during a short period, only the first one will need to make a HEAD/GET request. (Lazy online has one tricky case if Packages file does get update before timeout, but that can be handled neatly and transparently as we are online). This mode is going to be very useful when: - upgrading a large number of machines - running a script which _needs_ to run apt-get update many times (and it can't be rewritten to do it otherwise) - Offline: apt-cacher is totally offline. Files (Packages/Release files as well as DEBs) are served if available, and returns 503 if not available. This mode is very useful for laptop users without 100% internet connectivity, but want to play around with installer programs etc. Looking forward for feedback. Thanks in advance! Anuradha -- http://www.linux.lk/~anuradha/ http://anuradha-ratnaweera.blogspot.com
