Re: can't install from a local repository

[Christopher Curtis <ccurtis@aet-usa.com>]

Eric Winger wrote:

> I'm still missing something. Where should the .deb files be in 
> relationship to the Packages.gz? I thought the same directory. Is that 
> not correct?

Eric:  This is really very simple.  'apt-get' is just a web browser. 
Look at other repositories.  Look at your sources.list and then look at, 
for example, http://http.us.debian.org/debian

I suggested a smaller one so you can look at the Packages file without 
download 10MB of data, but basically it looks like this:

<URL>/dists/<distribution>/_architecture_/<section>/Packages

Packages[.gz] has a list of packages, each with a line that looks like:

Filename: /pool/main/a/apackage_i386.deb

apt-get gets the Packages and downloads the Filename:

Use your web browser to verify things are where they should be.

Here's a snippet of my script, using dpkg-scanpackages, which I 
suggested you read the man page for initially ...

---
incoming=pool/incoming
testing=dists/testing
arch=binary-i386

makePackages()
{       [ -d $2/$arch ] || mkdir -p $2/$arch
        echo "$1 =->> $2"
        dpkg-scanpackages $1 overrides |\
                (cd $2/$arch; tee Packages | gzip -9 > Packages.gz)
        echo
}

# pool/incoming/all -> dists/testing/all
makePackages "$incoming/all" "$testing/all"
---

If you create the pool/incoming directory and stick a package in it, it 
should even work.

And if you find any of this useful, you might even want to consider 
donating some documentation.  I figured it out using the HOWTOs I sent 
before, but this should be easy for anyone.  :)

rgds,
Chris