[SLUG] apt questions - apt-cacher and /var/cache/apt/archives
Do the packages in /var/cache/apt/archives represent all the installed packages on a standard Ubuntu system? Can I use this as input to apt-cacher for the purposes of subsequently updating another box? Eg, breezy to dapper. thanks... David. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] apt questions - apt-cacher and /var/cache/apt/archives
On Tue, 2006-08-15 at 23:03 +1000, david wrote: Do the packages in /var/cache/apt/archives represent all the installed packages on a standard Ubuntu system? Unless you've removed packages, the contents of /var/cache/apt/archives represent every single package ever installed on that system, regardless of whether a package was subsequently removed, or replaced by an updated version. apt-get has a couple of commands for managing the package cache. apt-get clean will clear out the cache completely. autoclean is a little more intelligent. Check the apt-get man page for details. Can I use this as input to apt-cacher for the purposes of subsequently updating another box? Eg, breezy to dapper. I guess you could seed apt-cacher with the contents of one machine's package cache, yeah. But I've never used apt-cacher. :-) -- Pete -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] apt questions - apt-cacher and /var/cache/apt/archives
On Tue, 2006-08-15 at 23:27 +1000, Peter Hardy wrote: On Tue, 2006-08-15 at 23:03 +1000, david wrote: Do the packages in /var/cache/apt/archives represent all the installed packages on a standard Ubuntu system? Unless you've removed packages, the contents of /var/cache/apt/archives represent every single package ever installed on that system, regardless of whether a package was subsequently removed, or replaced by an updated version. apt-get has a couple of commands for managing the package cache. apt-get clean will clear out the cache completely. autoclean is a little more intelligent. Check the apt-get man page for details. Thanks for that. From the man page: autoclean snip APT::Clean-Installed will prevent installed packages from being erased if it is set to off. How do I set APT::Clean-Installed? Google hasn't helped :( Is this what I'm looking for? Can I use this as input to apt-cacher for the purposes of subsequently updating another box? Eg, breezy to dapper. I guess you could seed apt-cacher with the contents of one machine's package cache, yeah. But I've never used apt-cacher. :-) -- Pete -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] apt questions - apt-cacher and /var/cache/apt/archives
$quoted_author = david ; Do the packages in /var/cache/apt/archives represent all the installed packages on a standard Ubuntu system? Can I use this as input to apt-cacher for the purposes of subsequently updating another box? Eg, breezy to dapper. try `aptitude autoclean` or `apt-get autoclean` if you don't have any network level apt caching then i would rsync /var/cache/apt/archives from the upgraded box to the to-be-upgraded box if you are trying to sync installed packages, use `dpkg --get-selections` on both and diff them. cheers marty -- xterm The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself? http://www.bash.org/?4753 -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] apt questions - apt-cacher and /var/cache/apt/archives
On Wed, 2006-08-16 at 07:52 +1000, david wrote: On Tue, 2006-08-15 at 23:27 +1000, Peter Hardy wrote: On Tue, 2006-08-15 at 23:03 +1000, david wrote: Do the packages in /var/cache/apt/archives represent all the installed packages on a standard Ubuntu system? Unless you've removed packages, the contents of /var/cache/apt/archives represent every single package ever installed on that system, regardless of whether a package was subsequently removed, or replaced by an updated version. apt-get has a couple of commands for managing the package cache. apt-get clean will clear out the cache completely. autoclean is a little more intelligent. Check the apt-get man page for details. Thanks for that. From the man page: autoclean snip APT::Clean-Installed will prevent installed packages from being erased if it is set to off. How do I set APT::Clean-Installed? Google hasn't helped :( Is this what I'm looking for? I'm not sure. What are you looking for? :-) That needs to be in apt's config file, /etc/apt/apt.conf . You'd want to add APT::Clean-Installed false; From the apt.conf manpage: Clean-Installed Defaults to on. When turned on the autoclean feature will remove any packages which can no longer be downloaded from the cache. If turned off then packages that are locally installed are also excluded from cleaning - but note that APT provides no direct means to reinstall them. It looks like turning it off will leave you with a cache that slightly more accurately represents the packages that are installed on a machine after doing an autoclean. But if you're looking to mirror the installed package list on the box you're upgrading, you'd want to do something like: - On the first machine, run dpkg --get-selections packagelist to get the status of all installed (and removed) packages. - Transfer packagelist to the second machine and run dpkg --set-selections packagelist to set the desired status of all of those packages. - Run apt-get dselect-upgrade , which will then go about installing/removing things to change desired status to actual status. Cheers, -- Pete -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] apt questions - apt-cacher and /var/cache/apt/archives
Top posting because I'm re-explaining the problem, and btw, I've searched debian.org and google and can't seem to find the answers to any of these questions: I've found a thing called apt-cacher which looks like a nice simple way to locally cache packages for upgrading other boxes. I've installed it on my main desktop box, which had already been updated to Dapper. I want to seed apt-cacher so that I can use it as a source.list for other upgrades. I think that means that I need to seed it with all the currently installed Dapper packages, but presumably NOT any old packages. so... I'm thinking I should do: #apt-get autoclean -o APT::Clean-Installed=off #cp /var/cache/apt/archives/* /var/cache/apt-cacher/import/ #/usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher-import.pl then change my other boxes sources lists to point to apt-cacher on this box - voila! It sounds easy, but it also looks like a great way to screw up a perfectly good install, so I'm looking for some advice/confirmation :) many thanks... David PS: I notice that apt.conf is now apt.conf.d/ but I can't find any description of how the various files work, or if there is a precedence etc etc. Is there a howto or whatever? On Wed, 2006-08-16 at 10:18 +1000, Peter Hardy wrote: On Wed, 2006-08-16 at 07:52 +1000, david wrote: On Tue, 2006-08-15 at 23:27 +1000, Peter Hardy wrote:/usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher-import.pl On Tue, 2006-08-15 at 23:03 +1000, david wrote: Do the packages in /var/cache/apt/archives represent all the installed packages on a standard Ubuntu system? Unless you've removed packages, the contents of /var/cache/apt/archives represent every single package ever installed on that system, regardless of whether a package was subsequently removed, or replaced by an updated version. apt-get has a couple of commands for managing the package cache. apt-get clean will clear out the cache completely. autoclean is a little more intelligent. Check the apt-get man page for details. Thanks for that. From the man page: autoclean snip APT::Clean-Installed will prevent installed packages from being erased if it is set to off. How do I set APT::Clean-Installed? Google hasn't helped :( Is this what I'm looking for? I'm not sure. What are you looking for? :-) /usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher-import.pl That needs to be in apt's config file, /etc/apt/apt.conf . You'd want to add APT::Clean-Installed false; From the apt.conf manpage: Clean-Installed Defaults to on. When turned on the autoclean feature will remove any packages which can no longer be downloaded from the cache. If turned off then packages that are locally installed are also excluded from cleaning - but note that APT provides no direct means to reinstall them. It looks like turning it off will leave you with a cache that slightly more accurately represents the packages that are installed on a machine after doing an autoclean. But if you're looking to mirror the installed package list on the box you're upgrading, you'd want to do something like: - On the first machine, run dpkg --get-selections packagelist to get the status of all installed (and removed) packages. - Transfer packagelist to the second machine and run dpkg --set-selections packagelist to set the desired status of all of those packages. - Run apt-get dselect-upgrade , which will then go about installing/removing things to change desired status to actual status. Cheers, -- Pete -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
