On Mon, Jan 09, 2023 at 11:50:23AM +0530, Sadhu Santh wrote: > Hi, > > I am hosting a local Debian mirror for my LAN. This helps in low internet > bandwidth use. > > I keep only the required distributions (past five years and testing > release). > > Compared to other distributions such ArchLinux/RockyLinux (single line Rsync > can do the job), the partial mirroring over Rsync in Debian is a complex > process. > > I use ftpsync, which can run on any Linux distribution. > > Is there any simple set of Rsync commands to sync a particular version of > the platform (e.g. x86) of Debian? If not, why the upstream structure is not > made simpler? > > Thanks for your guidance on the matter.
The best solution, IMHO, is to mirror using a tool that is aware of the specific structure of apt repositories. Personally, I have had excellent success with apt-cacher-ng, which functions much like a squid proxy. You configure apt-cacher-ng with the sources you like, then you configure the clients on your network with the same sources but tell them to use the apt-cacher-ng proxy. Whenever a package is downloaded, apt-cacher-ng keeps it around and serves it from the local cache for subsequent requests. You are able to configure how much disk space it uses, how many pervious versions of packages to keep around, etc. Another possibility seems like it would be apt-mirror. However, I have never used it and so I cannot give a specific or detailed recommendation. Regards, -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sánchez