Re: Optimizing use of /var/cache/apt/archives/ by Synaptic &/or apt-get

[Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org>]

Le 23/01/2019 à 15:43, Richard Owlett a écrit :
> 1. If /var/cache/apt/archives/ has the same or later version version of 
> a package, will Synaptic and apt-get automatically use contents of 
> /var/cache/apt/archives/ in preference to downloading whatever is at 
> location specified by sources.list?

Same version : yes. Later version : no.

> 2. If there is no internet connection at the moment, will Synaptic and 
> apt-get  use the latest version in /var/cache/apt/archives/ ?

apt-get uses a version in the cache if and only if it matches the 
requested version, regardless of the internet connectivity.

1) apt decides which version of a package it wants.
2) If that package version is present in the cache, it uses it.
3) Otherwise, it selects a mirror and downloads it from there.