Re: Setting up debian package server for installation over ethernet

[Gregory Seidman <gss+debian@cs.brown.edu>]

On Fri, Nov 28, 2003 at 01:03:53PM +0530, Vikas B N wrote:
}  A couple of colleagues and I are planning
}  to set up an ftp/http server which hosts
}  the debian packages, so that people can
}  install Debian on their machines over the
}  office intranet.
} 
}  What is the best way to go about this? 
[...]
}  Also, what is the best way to keep this
}  server up-to-date? Guess, what I'm asking
}  for is like a mirror of the Debian packages...

I use debmirror for this. It seems to give some spurious errors from time
to time, but it works pretty dependably. I have a cron job that runs in the
wee hours of the morning each day. (Actually, I mirror both at home and at
work; at work I only bother mirroring on weekday mornings.)

You can mirror using either rsync or ftp. Due to firewall issues, I use ftp
at work, but I recommend rsync if you can use it. This is the script I run
as a cron job:

#!/bin/sh

#MAIN="--host=rsync.kernel.org --root=:mirrors/debian/"
#MAIN="--host=ftp.debian.org --root=:debian/"
MAIN="--host=archive.progeny.com --root=:debian/"

#NONUS="--host=ftp.de.debian.org --root=:debian-non-US/"
#NONUS="--host=ftp.at.debian.org --root=:debian-non-US/"
NONUS="--host=nonus.debian.org --root=:debian-non-US/"

ARCH="--arch=i386,powerpc"
SECTIONS="--section=main,contrib,non-free --source"

debmirror /var/ftp/debian --method=rsync \
        --dist=woody,sarge,sid \
        $ARCH $SECTIONS $MAIN "$@"
debmirror /var/ftp/debian-non-US --method=rsync \
        --dist=woody/non-US,sarge/non-US,sid/non-US \
        $ARCH $SECTIONS $NONUS "$@"


}  Thanks in advance,
} -vikas
--Greg