A local caching of parts of repositories?

[Oceanwatcher]

I admit this is not a problem that most people will bump into... :-)

As I have started installing Kubuntu for friends now, I find myself doing the same "exercises" over and over and as the lines here are extremely slow, things takes time. So I was thinking that it would be nice if I could have some kind of cache for the things I am using. I am not thinking about every bit in the repo's, but some kind of "repo proxy" so that when I do an update or add something, it gets added to this cache/proxy so the next time I need it, it will come from the local server if it has not been upgraded before I need it the second time - in which case it should get downloaded and added again...

Anyone know of a solution like this? I would guess it would be a good solution for bigger companies that want to have access to faster upgrades?

Any ideas are welcome. Just keep in mind that I do not have harddisk space enough to cache all the free software in the world... :-)

[flarson]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

I use apt-cacher-ng for that. I configure it to keep only the latest version of any package and right now it is using 3.9 GB. It is simple and reliable.

I then have one machine download all new packages each night and by the time I am ready to install they are within Fast ethernet of all my computers.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

Did a quick search and it definitely look like a good idea. We have several PC's here at home on a very slow line, so this will take a lot of load off our connection! Thank you for the tip.

This is another app that should be in a server version of Kubuntu in the future - with a nice desktop gui of course :-)

[flarson]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

Jeez, it works now. Don't encourage them to break it.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

I have had it running here now for a while and it works exactly the way it should :-)

BUT - the reason for me to wish that it was a bit easier to turn on and off is that the rumor is spreading that I can help people install Kubuntu. And our line here at home is not exactly fast... So I wish I could have an easy way to direct any pc I get here to apt-cacher, and then easily switch it off when I give it back. Or even better - just set it and if it do not find the proxy, it would go directly.

I know I am dreaming, but it would be nice to avoid having to hog the bandwith every time I am helping someone here.

[flarson]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

I control the use of it through apt.conf. I actually use a file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d. When I place it there apt uses the proxy. When I remove it apt-does not use the proxy. I call it 02proxy and it contains

// Cause dev to be used as proxy for apt.
Acquire::http { Proxy "[url]http://dev:3142";[/url] };

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

Too bad it is not enough to rename it...

I will do the same for now. Thx. Let me know if you come up with something even easier.

[flarson]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

You could just comment the one active line and leave the file there till you need to uncomment it again.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

Of course!

And that brings me to a subject I have been meaning to ask about for a while.

Can you give a crash course in commenting? Seems there are several ways around, and for specific files. Any method that works in all files?

I see comments in php, css, ini and other files. And sometimes I am a little confused. It is ok enough if there already is a comment. Then I just use the same style. But if it is a new file that I created, I always wonder what to use.

[flarson]

Re: A local caching of parts of repositories?

I am afraid you just gave about as good a crash course as is possible. Every file format (or parser) has its own idea of a comment. Most of the linux and Unix configuration files use # at the beginning of the line.