Re: Bug#481129: Bug#671503: general: APT repository format is not documented

[Julian Andres Klode <jak@debian.org>]

On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 07:38:59AM +0800, Paul Wise wrote:
> On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 12:58 AM, Julian Andres Klode wrote:
> 
> > What's the opinion about the flat repository format, where you
> > just have one directory with Release, Packages, Sources, and
> > friends and no sub-directories?
> >
> > Should they be documented as well then? We would then have two
> > kind of documented repository formats:
> >
> >        1. Debian-style, with a pool (or similar) and a dists directory
> >        2. Flat-style, with just one directory
> >
> > This should cover everything we currently support. Although I don't
> > know much about how much stuff we support in flat directories WRT
> > Translation, Contents, and diffs.
> 
> I would like to see the flat-style repository documented too, since
> some of the derivatives in the Debian derivatives census use it and I
> would like to lint their apt repositories.

I added (and others edited formatting a bit)

= Flat Repository Format =

A flat repository does not use the {{{dists}}} hierarchy of directories,
and instead places meta index and indices directly into the archive root
(or some part below it) In sources.list syntax, a flat repository is specified
like this:

{{{
   deb uri directory/
}}}

Where {{{uri}}} specifies the archive root, and {{{directory}}} specifies the
position of the meta index and the indices relative to the archive root. In
Flat repositories, the following indices are supported:

 * Packages (under the location {{{directory/Packages}}})
 * Sources  (under the location {{{directory/Sources}}})

!InRelease, Release, Release.gpg meta-information are supported as well. Diffs,
Translations, and Contents indices are not defined for that repository format.
Indices may be compressed just like in the standard Debian repository format.


-- 
Julian Andres Klode  - Debian Developer, Ubuntu Member

See http://wiki.debian.org/JulianAndresKlode and http://jak-linux.org/.