I would like to build my own local repository on my LAN, so that machines on the LAN can update and upgrade from it. I want to download the packages and store them on my local server so that I can update, upgrade, install, etc, from it without using the internet.
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2Possible Duplicate:askubuntu.com/questions/974/…– stephenmyallJul 31, 2012 at 9:40
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3I don't think it is a duplicate. What maythux wants to accomplish is create his own repository server for use with aptitude. What Keryx does is replace aptitude as package manager and create external sources for packages.– con-f-useJul 31, 2012 at 10:57
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1Possible duplicate? - askubuntu.com/questions/9809/… or askubuntu.com/questions/3503/…– jrgJul 31, 2012 at 13:42
10 Answers
From the Ubuntu Help wiki:
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 repositoryInstall dpkg-dev
Type in a terminal
sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev
The Directory
Create a directory where you will keep your packages. For this example, we'll use
/usr/local/mydebs.
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/mydebs
Now move your packages into the directory you've just created.
Previously downloaded Packages are generally stored on your system in the
/var/cache/apt/archives
directory. If you have installed apt-cacher you will have additional packages stored in its /packages directory.The Script update-mydebs
It's a simple three liner:
#! /bin/bash cd /usr/local/mydebs 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 How the script works:
dpkg-scanpackages looks at all the packages in mydebs, and the output is compressed and written to a file (Packages.gz) that apt-get update can read (see below for a reference that explains this in excruciating detail). /dev/null is an empty file; it is a substitute for an override file which holds some additional information about the packages, which in this case is not really needed. See deb-override(5) if you want to know about it.
Sources.list
add the line
deb file:/usr/local/mydebs ./
to your /etc/apt/sources.list, and you're done.
CD Option
You can burn the directory containing the debs to a CD and use that as a repository as well (good for sharing between computers). To use the CD as a repository, simply run
sudo apt-cdrom add
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.
Badly made packages will probably fail, but you won't have endured dpkg hell.
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4Could you explain the syntax on the line
dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null | gzip -9c > Packages.gz
. What's/dev/null
doing there. I read the man page too, but it wasn't quite clear. May 28, 2013 at 12:13 -
@blade19899 I need a small bit of clarification, please. I want a repository with just a few select packages in it, not every package I ever touched. Am I correct that this technique will give me that ability? The goal here is to have a repository that a software installation group can use on an isolated LAN, far away from the temptations to apt-get the unneeded. Jun 28, 2013 at 19:24
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10Note that if you use
deb file:/usr/local/mydebs ./
in your/etc/apt/sources.list
, you may face the problem E: The repository 'file:/home/path Release' does not have a Release file. N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default. To solve the problem usedeb [trusted=yes] file:/usr/local/mydebs ./
. Mar 19, 2019 at 14:26
*To make an offline Repository Over LAN *
Install a Local Apache Webserver
# apt-get install apache2
By default, Debian's Apache package will set up a website under /var/www
on your system. For our purposes, that's fine, so there's no reason to do anything more. You can easily test it by pointing your favorite browser at http://localhost
You should see the default post-installation web page which is actually stored in /var/www/index.html
Create a Debian Package Repository Directory
chose to create a directory /var/www/debs
for this. Under it, you should create "architecture" directories, one for each architecture you need to support. If you're using just one computer (or type of computer), then you'll only need one -- typically "i386" for 32-bit systems or "amd64" for 64 bit. If you are using some other architecture, I'll assume you probably already know about this.
Now just copy the ".deb" package files for a given architecture into the appropriate directories. If you now point your favorite web browser at http://localhost/debs/amd64
(for example) you'll see a listing of the packages for 64 bit systems.
Create a Packages.gz file
Now we need to create a catalog file for APT to use. This is done with a utility called "dpkg-scanpackages". Here's the commands I use to update the AMD64 packages on my LAN:
# cd /var/www/debs/
# dpkg-scanpackages amd64 | gzip -9c > amd64/Packages.gz
Make the repository known to APT
Now the only thing left to do is to let APT know about your repository. You do this by updating your /etc/apt/sources.list file. You'll need an entry like this one:
deb http://localhost/debs/ amd64/
I used the actual hostname of my system instead of localhost -- this way the code is the same for all of the computers on my LAN, but localhost will do just fine if you are running just one computer.
Now, update APT:
# apt-get update
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2Adding that line to /etc/apt/sources.list will break updates when not in the LAN, won't it?– FelixDec 3, 2015 at 14:43
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2For Ubuntu 16.04, you might need to replace
/var/www/debs
in this answer with/var/www/html/debs
. Or you will need extra steps to manually edit your apache configuration in/etc/apache2
– ErikFeb 18, 2018 at 22:06
Creating an Authenticated Repository
I've had a look at the answers here and on other sites and most have the (IMHO big) disadvantage that you're setting up an unauthenticated repository. This means you need to run apt-get
with --allow-unauthenticated
to install packages from it. This can be a security risk, especially in scripts where the packages you're installing might not all be from your local repository.
Note that I haven't covered here how to make it available over the LAN, but that's fairly generic config using Apache or nginx (see the other answers here).
Setup the repo directory
mkdir /home/srv/packages/local-xenial
cd /home/srv/packages/local-xenial
Then add a line like this to sources.list
:
deb file:/home/srv/packages/local-xenial/ ./
Adding and Removing Packages
remove packages
rm /home/srv/packages/local-xenial/some_package_idont_like
add packages
cp /some/dir/apackage.deb /home/srv/packages/local-xenial
now run the following script which generates the Packages, Release and InRelease files and signs them with your gpg private key:
#!/bin/bash
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo -e "usage: `basename $0` DISTRO
where DISTRO is the Ubuntu version codename (e.g. 14.04 is trusty)\n
The way to use this script is to do the changes to the repo first, i.e. delete or copy in the .deb file to /srv/packages/local-DISTRO, and then run this script\n
This script can be run as an unprivileged user - root is not needed so long as your user can write to the local repository directory"
else
cd /srv/packages/local-"$1"
# Generate the Packages file
dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null > Packages
gzip --keep --force -9 Packages
# Generate the Release file
cat conf/distributions > Release
# The Date: field has the same format as the Debian package changelog entries,
# that is, RFC 2822 with time zone +0000
echo -e "Date: `LANG=C date -Ru`" >> Release
# Release must contain MD5 sums of all repository files (in a simple repo just the Packages and Packages.gz files)
echo -e 'MD5Sum:' >> Release
printf ' '$(md5sum Packages.gz | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=1)' %16d Packages.gz' $(wc --bytes Packages.gz | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=1) >> Release
printf '\n '$(md5sum Packages | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=1)' %16d Packages' $(wc --bytes Packages | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=1) >> Release
# Release must contain SHA256 sums of all repository files (in a simple repo just the Packages and Packages.gz files)
echo -e '\nSHA256:' >> Release
printf ' '$(sha256sum Packages.gz | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=1)' %16d Packages.gz' $(wc --bytes Packages.gz | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=1) >> Release
printf '\n '$(sha256sum Packages | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=1)' %16d Packages' $(wc --bytes Packages | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields=1) >> Release
# Clearsign the Release file (that is, sign it without encrypting it)
gpg --clearsign --digest-algo SHA512 --local-user $USER -o InRelease Release
# Release.gpg only need for older apt versions
# gpg -abs --digest-algo SHA512 --local-user $USER -o Release.gpg Release
# Get apt to see the changes
sudo apt-get update
fi
Example Contents of conf/distributions file
Origin: My_Local_Repo
Label: My_Local_Repo
Codename: xenial
Architectures: i386 amd64
Components: main
Description: My local APT repository
SignWith: 12345ABC
Links
https://wiki.debian.org/RepositoryFormat
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1090731
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CreateAuthenticatedRepository
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@Phillip your edit used
date -Rc
, I corrected it todate -Ru
assuming that's what you meant from the edit description– muruJan 30, 2017 at 11:42 -
Thanks, I only recently started getting warnings from apt about this due to the date generated being in the local TZ and not UTC. I fixed it in my own script but forget to edit it here Jan 30, 2017 at 22:14
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1@KevinJohnson I've updated the main answer now with an example of that file from my local apt repo Nov 4, 2017 at 2:36
You can also setup local source server by nginx and reprepro:
Install debian packages
sudo apt-get install reprepro nginx
make directories for reprepro and edit it
sudo mkdir -p /srv/reprepro/ubuntu/{conf,dists,incoming,indices,logs,pool,project,tmp} $ cd /srv/reprepro/ubuntu/ $ sudo chown -R `whoami` . # changes the repository owner to the current user
/srv/reprepro/ubuntu/conf/distributions
Origin: Your Name Label: Your repository name Codename: karmic Architectures: i386 amd64 source Components: main Description: Description of repository you are creating SignWith: YOUR-KEY-ID
/srv/reprepro/ubuntu/conf/options
ask-passphrase basedir .
Include it in reprepro, build it
$ reprepro includedeb karmic /path/to/my-package_0.1-1.deb \ # change /path/to/my-package_0.1-1.deb to the path to your package
Config nginx:
/etc/nginx/sites-available/vhost-packages.conf
server { listen 80; server_name packages.internal; access_log /var/log/nginx/packages-access.log; error_log /var/log/nginx/packages-error.log; location / { root /srv/reprepro; index index.html; } location ~ /(.*)/conf { deny all; } location ~ /(.*)/db { deny all; } }
Optimize bucket size:
/etc/nginx/conf.d/server_names_hash_bucket_size.conf
server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
Reference to Install Guide Link
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4Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Jul 3, 2013 at 9:35
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reprepor does not support multiple versions of the same package. It sounds strange, but this is the way reprepro works– maxadamoJun 19, 2019 at 9:01
You might want to take a look at apt-mirror
and apt-cacher
.
Here is a guide on how to install and use it.
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A 5-Year old answer of yours is being flagged as LQ. If it would be deleted, go to meta and ask for an undelete. I voted to keep open, but it needs an edit! ;-)– FabbyJun 1, 2018 at 23:48
The instructions in @BigSack's answer and Ubuntu's official wiki post didn't work for me on Ubuntu 18.04, until I made these two changes:
Generate a plain, uncompressed
Packages
file (when executing this, the working directory must be where all packages are located)cd /usr/local/mydebs dpkg-scanpackages -m . > Packages
Add the following entry in
/etc/apt/sources.list
deb [trusted=yes] file:/usr/local/mydebs ./
There are several reasons you may want to create a local repository. The first is that you want to save on bandwidth if you have multiple Ubuntu machines to update. For example if you had 25 Ubuntu machines that all needed updating at least once a week, you would significantly save bandwidth because you could do all but the repository locally.
Most organizations have decent bandwidth for their network gateways but this bandwidth is a precious commodity that needs to be used wisely.
Many organizations still have routers with 10MB or 100MB limits at the gateway but 1 GB network connections internally so bandwidth could be better used internally. The second reason for creating your own repository is that you can control what applications are loaded on your internal Ubuntu machines.
You can remove any applications your organization does not want to use on the local network from the repository that updates the machines. Even better, you can create a test box and test applications and versions before you allow them to roll out into your network assuring security and stability.
You first have to setup a mirror, to do that you need to Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.
apt-get install apt-mirror
Once you have your set up apt-mirror you can start your download of the repository with this command.
apt-mirror /etc/apt/mirror.list1
1Source:Create an Ubuntu Repository
To make an offline local Repository
1. make a dir accessible (atleast by root)
sudo mkdir /var/my-local-repo
- copy all the deb files to this directory.
- scan the directory
sudo dpkg-scanpackages /var/my-local-repo /dev/null > /var/my-local-repo/Packages
- add the local repository to sources
echo "deb file:/var/my-local-repo ./" > /tmp/my-local.list
sudo mv /tmp/my-local.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/my-local.list
sudo apt-get update
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The more or less same thing is also on official wiki: Repositories/Personal - Community Help Wiki– sdaauFeb 23, 2014 at 16:19
I tried to use apt-rdepends
like in the selected answer, but when I tried to install the package from my local repository, it complained about missing dependencies.
apt-rdepends
wasn't listing some of the dependencies for my package. I suspect it has something to do with the fact, that apt-cache show
shows multiple records for it.
Instead I used apt-cache depends
, and that did the trick:
Getting a recursive list of dependencies
apt-cache depends <packagename> -i --recurse
-i
: important dependencies only
--recurse
: recursive
Turn it into a digestible list
- Removing symbols & spaces:
| tr -d "|,<,>, "
- Removing Depends: & PreDepends:
| sed -e 's/^Depends://g' | sed -e 's/^PreDepends://g'
- Sorting the list:
| sort
- Only unique values:
| uniq > list.txt
Complete command:
apt-cache depends <packagename> -i --recurse | tr -d "|,<,>, " | sed -e \
's/^Depends://g' | sed -e 's/^PreDepends://g' | sort | uniq > list.txt
Download the packages
for i in $( cat list.txt ); do apt-get download $i; done;
Scan for the packages and turn it into Packages.gz
dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null | gzip -9c > Packages.gz
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1Might be a good idea to reference which answer you're talking about... Jun 8, 2016 at 14:03
Check out OpenRepo (https://github.com/openkilt/openrepo)
This open source project runs as a web server. You can upload packages to it and it will host it on your LAN for other servers to upgrade from.