Answering your question:
copy ALL of the debs from /var/cache/apt/archives to the new machine's /var/cache/apt/archives, then simply sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get install vlc
as normal - it will pick up the .debs in the archive and install without downloading.
Going a step further: install apt-cacher-ng instead
On the first machine, do sudo apt-get install apt-cacher-ng
. Then do sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf
and insert the string Acquire::http::Proxy "http://127.0.0.1:3142/";
- this tells the machine to use the apt-cacher-ng
instance on itself when it updates. Now, import your existing cached debs - sudo cp -a /var/cache/apt/archives/* /var/cache/apt-cacher-ng/_import/
, then open your browser to http://localhost:3142/acng-report.html
, scroll down, and click Start Import
. Once that's done, do a quick sudo apt-get update
- and, whew! You've now got apt-cacher-ng
running on your host machine, and every time your host machine downloads updates, it will cache them for both itself and any other machine on your network.
Finally, on your second machine, sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf
and insert the string Acquire::http::Proxy "http://first.machine.ip.address:3142/";
where first.machine.ip.address is the IP address of the machine you installed apt-cacher-ng
on in the paragraph above - now, when you download updates on either machine, it will update the apt-cacher-ng
on the first machine, and you won't have to download them again. Very, very slick and easy once it's set up.