how to authenticate my local repository

[Derek Broughton]

Bruce Marshall wrote:

> On Tuesday 29 April 2008, Derek Broughton wrote:
>> That's exactly what apt-ftparchive does.  If you just copy the .debs
>> around, you have to use dpkg to install them.  His way, with probably
>> _less_ work (I use apt-move to do the same thing, and it took 10 minutes
>> to set up and no more work), apt should find them.
> 
> Don't think that is true.  

It's absolutely true - I do it all the time.  Why would people write these
programs if they don't work?

> As long as I place them 
> in  /var/cache/apt/archives/  the next update running any of the programs
> (aptitude, adept, etc)  will find the .debs in the archives and use them.
> At least that has been my experience.

I _know_ that doesn't work.  What is _in_ /var/cache/apt/archives is indexed
in /var/lib/dpkg...  You can't just stick a .deb in the archives directory
and expect it to be found.  Try it - use "apt-cache policy <pkg>" and find
something that does _not_ say it's in the local cache (ie, no
result "100 /var/lib/dpkg/status").  Then stick a copy of that .deb
in /var/cache/apt/archives.  Do "apt-cache policy" again, or try to
install - it will download it from whatever source has the highest
priority.

You could _probably_ stick it in the "partial" directory and have the
download finish immediately because it found a 100% partial copy.
-- 
derek