Skip to main content

How to Make a Local (Offline) Repository in Ubuntu / Debian

If you are in a place where you dont have internet (or have a bad one) You want to download .deb packages and install them offline. Each deb file is packaged as a seperate unit but may contain dependencies (recursively). apt-get automagically solves all the dependencies and installs all that are necessary. Manually install deb files one by one resolving each dependency would be tedious.

A better approach is to make your own local repository. Before you actually make a repo, You need *all* deb files. You dont practically have to mirror all of the packages from the internet, but enough to resolve all dependencies. Also, You have to make sure, you are getting debs of the correct architecture of your system (i386 etc)
# 1. make a dir accessible (atleast by root)
sudo mkdir /var/my-local-repo
# 2. copy all the deb files to this directory.
# 3. make the directory as a 
sudo dpkg-scanpackages  /var/my-local-repo /dev/null > \
 /var/my-local-repo/Packages

# 4. add the local repo to sources 
echo "deb file:/var/my-local-repo ./" > /tmp/my-local.list
sudo mv /tmp/my-local.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/my-local.list
sudo apt-get update
You can now use synaptic or cli
sudo apt-get install the-package-from-local

If all dependencies are available, it will install and be done. IF not, download those deb files (dependencies) too, and repeat steps 2 and 3.

Popular posts from this blog

Appcache manifest file issues/caveats

Application cache (appcache) is a powerful feature in HTML5. However, it does come with baggage. Many (see links below) advocated ferociously against it due to tricky issues it comes with. For someone who is just testing waters, these issues may throw them off grid. Knowing them before hand helps reduce some unpredictable effects.

Being a Vegetarian

I am a Proud Vegetarian. I don't eat Meat or Eggs. People say its hard here in US to be one. I beg to differ. The mere fact that I am hail and healthy these 4 years is a definitive proof. Apart from being bullied and trash talked by The Meat-Eaters, There is really nothing that makes this choice of mine any more than a debatable issue at a lunch or dinner. Other things aside, I am writing this blog having watched a PETA Video. Before you click on the play button, I ask you - If you are a vegetarian : Dont watch it. If you are not : Dare to watch it till the end. If you think going veg is just a fashion, think again . Even if you just want to do it for Fashion . Do it. Go Vegetarian. And Feel better asking the waiter for a Vegetarian Entrée in your next lunch.

classpath*: making your Modular Spring Resources

Spring gives multiple options to load XML resources for building contexts. the reference documentation does explain this feature quite well. However, I am taking my shot at explaining the different practical scenarios ( by order of growing modularisation) For Example, A simplest Spring based web Context Loader can be configured with resources like this <context-param> <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name> <param-value>applicationContext.xml</param-value> </context-param> <listener> <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class> </listener> You just need to put applicationContext.xml in WEB-INF/ folder of your webapp. However, Typically an application is n-tiered. You can also have multiple files setup and in relative paths. like <param-value> context-files/applicationContext.xml context-files/dao.xml context-files/service.xml </param-value>