2007-07-21T21:43:51 Sharing ubuntu package caches is practically impossible: host1 is running feisty. It has 1.4GB of package files left over from the install (and possibly past installs).
host2 is upgrading to feisty. The update-manager screen says I have 1h47m remaining to download at 164kb/s. What a no-brainer. I should be able to find the following instructions somewhere:
On your host that may have some packages, run this server: apt-cache-serve
On your host that needs some packages, append this line to your sources.list: "deb http://host1:3124/ feisty multiverse"
Run "aptitude update" and then proceed with your install. Packages will be retrieved from host1 when possible. The usual sources will provide all the rest.
No other configuration should be required, except MAYBE to adjust the port for my imagined apt-cache-serve. The point here is not to become an ubuntu repository with complete sets of signed packages. The point is to save some downloading time by using local copies of files I've already fetched.
Instead of that fantasy, I find they did write 'apt-cacher' and it's a total configuration mess. I tried the instructions here: http://www.debuntu.org/book/export/html/119
By default, apt-cacher doesn't use the packages that are already on host1. You can run some importer program which moves the packages out of /var/cache/apt! Why would I want to lose my working apt cache? The instructions guide you through replacing host2's sources.list with pointers to host1. I tried appending the host2 line (since I need host2 to look at real repos as well as my cache), but I got errors like this:
Err http://host1 feisty/multiverse Packages 500 Can't connect to dists:80 (Bad hostname 'dists') Err http://host1 feisty/multiverse Sources 500 Can't connect to dists:80 (Bad hostname 'dists')
where 'dists' is not a word that appears in sources.list or in any config file I touched during setup.
But, what would still be much more useful than a usable apt-cacher is the missing tool that tells me what files I modified after installing my packages. http://ideas.4brad.com/package-packager-compartmentalize-my-system-changes has more on that one.
