On Thu 24 Jan 2019 at 07:25:46 (-0600), Richard Owlett wrote: > On 01/23/2019 08:53 AM, Pascal Hambourg wrote: > > 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. > > > > I may have some re-thinking to do. Due to bandwidth I avoid downloads > whenever possible. Instead I purchase DVD sets. That's no real problem > for the machine whose purpose resembles a typical user's. > > I have a couple of machines set aside for experimentation. The > explicitly have no connectivity to the outside world. My mental image > resembled using the cache contents as an local pseudo-repository. I > may have to create a real one.
I would take a look at apt-move and apt-offline. Both look as though they could be of help. But don't forget that you can just stuff the cache, copying the files from one /var/cache/apt/archives to another. Just remember to set noclean wherever necessary. While you're reading man dpkg, realise that dpkg can (and sometimes must) install more than one package. --✄------ ACTIONS -i, --install package-file... Install the package. If --recursive or -R option is specified, package-file must refer to a directory instead. Installation consists of the following steps: 1. Extract the control files of the new package. --✄------ Back when dpkg was a more frequent topic of conversation here, people would get tripped up by mutual dependencies (A depends on B and vice versa) not realising that dpkg -i A B works. Perhaps a sprinkling of (s) suffixes would improve the man page. Cheers, David.