Re: Setting up debian package server for installation over ethernet

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To: debuser <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 04:51:38 -0600

On Fri, 2003-11-28 at 02:00, Oliver Elphick wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-11-28 at 07:33, Vikas B N wrote:
> > Hello All,
> >
> > A couple of colleagues and I are planning
> > to set up an ftp/http server which hosts
> > the debian packages, so that people can
> > install Debian on their machines over the
> > office intranet.
> >
> > What is the best way to go about this?
> >
> > Things that we are planning are,
> >
> > 1.the users should be able to do an
> > "apt-get update" and the packages
> > should be fetched/updated from this
> > server on the intranet.
> >
> > 2.users who are migrating from windows
> > must be able to install Debian on their
> > machines. (with the use of boot floppy, etc.)
>
> If you want to use http, set up your local repository to be served by
> apache (or boa if you don't need a full-fledged server)
>
> Or you can mount the repository through NFS and let apt treat it as
> local:
>
> deb file:/home/debian unstable main contrib non-free

I'd strongly suggest going the NFS route. Using http and/or ftp will
cause your clients to actually DOWNLOAD the files to a local directory,
uncompress them, and then install them. If you access them via an NFS
mount (this is what I do) then the files are treated as local so they
are just uncompressed on the fly. Note that it is still good to have an
ftp or http server in place for installation purposes. AFAIK you have to
have a pretty much functional system in place before you can do NFS
mounts, which already puts you past the install phase. This is where an
ftp server comes in handy. (Again, this is what I do.)

> > Also, what is the best way to keep this
> > server up-to-date? Guess, what I'm asking
> > for is like a mirror of the Debian packages...
>
> I use apt-move (the mirror option)

I wrote my own script for the mirroring operations that uses rsync, but
unless you only want to mirror sid and your disk space is at a premium
you're better off with something like apt-move.

-- 
Alex Malinovich
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• Previous message: Andre Marenke: "Replacing Exim with self compiled qmail"
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