Is it possible to add a location/folder on my hard disk to sources.list?

Question

Is it possible to add a location/folder on my hard disk (ex: /media/Data/Ubuntu) to the sources.list? If yes,how?

Answer 1

There are 4 steps to setting up a simple repository for yourself:

1. Install dpkg-dev.
2. Put the packages in a directory.
3. Create a script that will scan the packages and create a file apt-get update can read.
4. Add a line to your sources.list pointing at your repository.

Install dpkg-dev

Type in a terminal

sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev

The Directory

Create a directory where you will keep your packages.

sudo mkdir -p /media/Data/Ubuntu

Now move your packages into the directory you've just created.

The Script update-mydebs

It's a simple three-liner:

#! /bin/bash
cd /media/Data/Ubuntu
dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null | gzip -9c > Packages.gz

Cut and paste the above into gedit, and save it as update-mydebs in ~/bin (the tilde ~ means your home directory. If ~/bin does not exist, create it: Ubuntu will put that directory in your PATH. It's a good place to put personal scripts). Next, make the script executable:

chmod u+x ~/bin/update-mydebs

sources.list

Add the line:

deb [trusted=yes] file:/media/Data/Ubuntu ./

to your /etc/apt/sources.list, and you're done.

Using the Repository

Whenever you put a new deb in the mydebs directory, run

sudo update-mydebs
sudo apt-get update

Now your local packages can be manipulated with Synaptic, aptitude and the apt commands: apt-get, apt-cache, etc. When you attempt to apt-get install, any dependencies will be resolved for you, as long as they can be met.

Source: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Personal