[ubuntu-za] add repo

[Charl Wentzel]

-----Original Message-----
From: Miles <msdomdonner at gmail.com>
> I find it hard to believe that if, on a clean install. one copys the
> whole /var/cache/apt/archives from a working machine or local repo that
> the simple command like sudo apt-get update doesn look whats in your
> archives till it has first gone online to see whats inna sky. there must
> be a way to make update see whats available already on your pc?

Hi Miles

apt-cacher-ng might solve your problem.  It acts as a cache between the
repositories and your machine.  The benefit being that once a file has
been downloaded it would used the cached version instead of downloading
it.  I use it to save bandwidth as I have three Ubuntu machines at home
and install new machines regularly.

A few key features that might help solve your problem is: 

- offline mode: 
if enabled it won't communicate with the real repositories but still
operate as if it were.  So you can use it even if you are not connected
to the Internet.

- importing of existing archives:
You can import all your existing archive files into apt-cacher-ng so
you won't have to download anything new.

- setting your cache directory:
This way you can use your external drive to store the archives on
instead of your local pc

The only drawback I can think of is that although you can install it on
your own machine, you will need it running on a separate machine when
you do a fresh install on another.  However, this can be a very low
level machine running ubuntu server edition instead of a desktop
version.  

To ensure you have all the repository files you need I would actually
suggest doing a fresh install on a machine without an internet
connection so no updates are downloaded from the repositories during
the install.  Then set the machine up to use apt-cacher of updates and
do a complete "aptitude safe-upgrade".  After that you can switch it to
off-line mode.

If this could work for you I can send you detailed instructions on how
to get it going.

Regards
Charl