[KLUG Members] Package Manager Problems

[David Bronson]

I think apt-proxy is the tool for this:

>From http://apt-proxy.sourceforge.net/

apt-proxy is a caching proxy for use with apt on Debian systems.  It is
useful anywhere where you have more than one Debian machine together on a
network which is faster than your internet connection (most networks are).
It builds up a partial Debian mirror, containing those files which have been
requested by clients.

Version 1 is now in maintainence mode only.  New features will only go into
version 2.

Features
caching of all apt requests from Debian machines
builds up a partial mirror directory automatically, with exactly the same
directory structure and filenames as the original mirror.
automatic purging of versions no longer in the distribution
automatic unused file cleaning, tunable by user defined parameters
makes sources.list configuration easier for multiple machines - if you
change your internet backend server you only have to make the change once in
apt-proxy, instead of on all Debian machines.

works with multiple architectures
http backend support (http://host/...)
rsync backend support (host::...)
ftp backend support (ftp://host/...)
existing .debs can be automatically moved into the apt-proxy cache using
apt-proxy-import



<enhanced snip>
If you have more than a dozen (Debian) machines and you're really concerned
about outgoing bandwidth, you could install an in-house private
mirror I suppose.

</enhanced snip>

David