Offline document

Author: jgg
Date: 1999-02-15 06:38:03 GMT
Offline document

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+<!doctype debiandoc system>
+<!-- -*- mode: sgml; mode: fold -*- -->
+<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>
+
+<abstract>
+This document describes how to use APT in a non-networked environment, 
+specificaly a 'sneaker-net' approach for performing upgrades.
+</abstract>
+
+<copyright>
+Copyright &copy; Jason Gunthorpe, 1999.
+<p>
+"APT" and this document are free software; you can redistribute them and/or
+modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
+by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
+option) any later version.
+
+<p>
+For more details, on Debian GNU/Linux systems, see the file
+/usr/doc/copyright/GPL for the full license.
+</copyright>
+
+<toc sect>
+
+<chapt>Introduction
+<!-- Overview		                                               {{{ -->
+<!-- ===================================================================== -->
+<sect>Overview
+
+<p>
+Normally APT requires direct access to a Debian archive, either from a local
+media or through a network. Another common complaint is that a Debian machine
+is on a slow link, such as a modem and another machine has a very fast 
+connection but they are physically distant.
+
+<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
+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.
+
+<p>
+This is achived 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.
+
+</sect>
+                                                                  <!-- }}} -->
+
+<chapt>Using APT on both machines
+<!-- Overview		                                               {{{ -->
+<!-- ===================================================================== -->
+<sect>Overview
+
+<p>
+APT being available on both machines gives the simplest configuration. The 
+basic idea is to place a copy of the status file on the disc and use the 
+remote machine to fetch the latest package files and decide which packages to 
+download. The disk directory structure should look like:
+
+<example>
+  /disc/
+    archives/
+       partial/
+    lists/
+       partial/
+    status
+    sources.list
+    apt.conf
+</example>
+
+</sect>
+                                                                  <!-- }}} -->
+<!-- The configuartion file                                            {{{ -->
+<!-- ===================================================================== -->
+<sect>The configuration file
+
+<p>
+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.
+
+<p>
+<em>apt.conf</em> must contain the necessary information to make APT use the 
+disc:
+
+<example>
+ APT
+ {
+   /* This is not necessary if the two machines are the same arch, it tells
+      the remote APT what architecture the Debian machine is */
+   Architecture "i386";
+   
+   Get::Download-Only "true";
+ };
+ 
+ Dir
+ {
+   /* Use the disc for state information and redirect the status file from
+      the /var/lib/dpkg default */
+   State "/disc/";
+   State::status "status";
+
+   // Binary caches will be stored localy
+   Cache::archives "/disc/archives/";
+ 
+   // 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>.
+
+<p>
+On the Debian 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. 
+On the remote machine execute the following:
+
+<example>
+ # export APT_CONFIG="/disc/apt.conf"
+ # apt-get update
+ [ APT fetches the package files ]
+ # apt-get dist-upgrade
+ [ APT fetches all the packages needed to upgrade your 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].
+
+<p>
+Now the disc contains all of the index files and archives needed to upgrade
+the Debian 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
+  [ Or any other APT command ]
+</example>
+
+<p> 
+It is necessary for proper function to re-specify the status file to be the 
+local one. This is very important!
+
+</sect>
+                                                                  <!-- }}} -->
+
+<chapt>Using APT and wget
+<!-- Overview		                                               {{{ -->
+<!-- ===================================================================== -->
+<sect>Overview
+
+<p>
+<em>wget</em> is a popular and portable download tool that can run on nearly
+any machine. Unlike the method above this requires that the Debian machine
+already has a list of available packages.
+
+<p>
+The basic idea is to create a disc that has only the archive files downloaded
+from the remote site. This is done by using the --print-uris option to apt-get
+and then preparing a wget script to actually fetch the packages.
+
+</sect>
+                                                                  <!-- }}} -->
+<!-- Operation		                                               {{{ -->
+<!-- ===================================================================== -->
+<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.
+
+<example>
+ # apt-get dist-upgrade 
+ [ Press no when prompted, make sure you are happy with the actions ]
+ # apt-get -qq --print-uris dist-upgrade > uris
+ # awk '{print "wget -O " $2 " " $1}' < uris > /disc/wget-script
+</example>
+
+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 
+disc.
+
+<p>
+The remote machine would do something like
+
+<example>
+  # cd /disc
+  # sh -x ./wget-script
+  [ wait.. ]
+</example>
+
+Once the archives are downloaded and the disc returned to the Debian machine
+installation can proceed using,
+
+<example>
+  # apt-get -o dir::cache::archives="/disc/" dist-upgrade
+</example>
+
+Which will use the already fetched archives on the disc.
+
+</sect>
+                                                                  <!-- }}} -->
+</book>