making a custom mirror installable - how?

["KORN Andras" <korn@chardonnay.math.bme.hu>]

Hi,

I have set up a rather customized mirror of Debian sid and lots of
unofficial apt-sources mostly for my personal use. It has a slightly
modified directory structure, custom Packages file, custom overrides, and it
lacks many packages I don't need (e.g. far-east language support, most
non-English documentation, etc).

With the 'old' bootdisks (the ones from potato), it used to be possible to
install from this mirror; with the new ones, it's apparently no longer
possible. The Release file needs to have a certain format, and I would
probably need the Debian-installer stuff and so on.

Are the scripts that generate the Release file (with checksums of Packages
etc) and any other required stuff (other than Packages and Packages.gz,
which dpkg-scanpackages handles well enough) available somewhere?

Where can I read about the Debian-installer thing so I can determine what
and how I need to mirror?

To make it clear what I'm after: I want to use my mirror as the installation
medium for new debian installations. I'd like to know what files need to be
where for the bootfloppies to find them, what structure those files must
have, and if tools to generate those files are available.

Currently, I only have a directory layout like this:

/debian/dists/sid/main/binary-i386/Packages (and .gz)
/debian/dists/unstable -> sid
/debian/pool (referenced by the Packages file)
/debian/dists/sid/main/disks-i386/{the stuff from official mirrors, both
potato and woody}

I know I need a Release file under /debian/dists/sid/main (or just
dists/sid?). How do I generate it?

What else do I need?

Thanks in advance,

Andrew

-- 
            Andrew Korn (Korn Andras) <korn@chardonnay.math.bme.hu>
             Finger korn@chardonnay.math.bme.hu for pgp key. QOTD:
           Health is the slowest possible rate at which one can die.