Re: moving apt's cache

[Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@stanfordalumni.org>]

On Sat, Jun 05, 2004 at 12:00:43PM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote:
> Ross Boylan wrote:
> > Currently, apt's cache is in /usr/var/cache/apt.
> 
> You must have overridden the default location.  That location above is
> not a normal one.

Correct on both counts.
> 
> > I would like to move that back to /var/cache/apt, thanks to new disk
> > space.
> 
> Remove your customization and it will return to the default location.
> 
> > I recall some problems with this when I originally moved it, I think
> > because some other files had pointers to the location.  That was quite
> > awhile ago.  Does anybody know if it is safe to make the switch simply
> > by editing 
> > Dir {
> > 	Cache "/usr/var/cache/apt";
> > };
> > in apt.conf and mv'ing the files?

Someone else suggested cp, not mv, and that's definitely the prudent
course.  The longer run goal is a mv, but I want to keep the copy till
things are definitely OK.

> 
> Yes, it should be safe to do that.  I have done that myself.  You will
> need to 'apt-get update' afterward to resync the lists.  When I do
> this I see warnings once through before things sync and then it is
> clean afterward.

It's odd it needs to sync at all.  In looking around the files, I
couldn't find anything that seemed tied to the absolute path for the
cache.  However, some of the files are binary.

> 
> > By "problems" I mean that apt starts downloading all the debs again,
> > seemingly not recognizing that it has them.
> 
> Hmm...  I don't see that.  Did you modify "Dir::State::Lists" too?

No, but maybe I mistook, or misremembered, this relatively modest
problem for the greater one of getting all the debs again (dial up
phone line, so I want to avoid that).
> 
> Bob


Thanks.