creating your own mirror for debian repo

depam · 12-29-2012, 01:00 AM

I want to have my own mirror so I can install packages offline and not connecting to the internet. Is there an easier way to do this? Thanks.

k3lt01 · 12-29-2012, 02:58 AM

Yes there are a few ways to do this.

You can use something like Debmirror as explained in this tutorial written by a friend of mine called BobSongs.

Or you could use one of the tools listed in this Debian wiki article.

I like the Debmirror method and I also have experience using the reprepro method.

k3lt01 · 12-29-2012, 04:07 AM

If you use the debmirror method all you need to install at first is debmirror so

Code:

apt-get install debmirror

Then create a location for your, rather, large download to go into. When you have done that open a terminal, cd into your new folder (if you don't cd into it you could very well over-write your entire /home folder so be very careful, and put this command in

Code:

debmirror --nosource -m --passive --host=ftp.debian.org --root=debian/ --method=http --progress --dist=squeeze,squeeze-updates,squeeze-proposed-updates, --section=main,contrib,non-free --arch=amd64 ~/DebianRepos --ignore-missing-release --ignore-release-gpg --diff-none

A couple of things to note, this downloads from the main Debian server, it may well be faster for you to download from your countries server so where we have

Code:

ftp.debian.org

replace that with

Code:

ftp.your country code.debian.org

mine is

Code:

ftp.au.debian.org

Next the dists is simply for squeeze and all that will download with this simple command above.

If you want security updates you will need to change the script to

Code:

debmirror --nosource -m --passive --host=security.debian.org --root=/ --method=http --progress --dist=squeeze/updates --section=main,contrib,non-free --arch=amd64 ~/DebianSecurity --ignore-missing-release --ignore-release-gpg --diff=none

Next the architectures you want can easily be chosen simply by adjusting

Code:

--arch=amd64

to

Code:

--arch=amd64,i386

If you want to download the source files remove

Code:

--nosource

from the code.

I would suggest you read the thread linked to above, or at least the first post, and take note of the section called "Pointing apt locally". Also read the man page for debmirror. I would suggest you also install the package dwww because that is the debian documentation browser and you can read all man, and other, pages that are on your PC in that.

When you are happy with the code you choose to use save it to a txt file in the folder you created, make it executable, and when you need to update your repository just click on it and it will start working for you. Oh and if you have more than one script make sure you change the name of the download folder in the script otherwise you will over-write the contents in that folder with new contents and it will delete things it does not find in the repository lists. Soooooooooo, make sure your security folder is named differently and shown as different in your script.

Last but not least you can also have squeeze,wheezy,Sid,experimental (or stable,testing,unstable,experimental) listed in the same script but it will make the download much bigger and more complicated.