Arch Linux

thayer

Fellow

From: Vancouver, BC

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,560

Website

Suggestion for pacman development re: archived packages on CD/DVD

I'm no programmer, so I don't know how easy this would be to implement (if at all), but I've been wondering if there's a way to make pacman reference a CD/DVD for existing packages and to use those packages instead of the internet for installing new software.

I'm aware of the current options posted to the wiki, with respect to creating a local repo on a CD/DVD and then adding the path in the pacman.conf, however it seems a bit much (building the index, etc.) just to use local packages as first priority.  Furthermore, the idea of copying all packages from a CD/DVD to the /var/cache/.. directory also seems prohibitive for systems that may have smaller hard drives.

It would seem more efficient to me if we could just dump a whole bunch of packages to a DVD and then have pacman check for the existence of a link to the CD/DVD under the /var/cache/pacman/... directory.  And then, if the link exists, have pacman cross-reference the CD/DVD files before seeking the equivalent packages from the online repos. 

Again, I don't know how plausible this is, but I thought I'd ask. 

I love how Arch can be setup and configured within 15-20 minutes, but its the downloading of all the necessary packages that takes so bloody long--anywhere from 1-3 hours depending on connection times.  It would be fantastic if we could mirror our pacman cache to a CD/DVD, say just before a reinstall, and then use that DVD snapshot for the fresh installation.

Last edited by thayer.w (2007-06-24 19:25:52)

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thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

shining

Pacman Developer

Registered: 2006-05-10

Posts: 2,043

Re: Suggestion for pacman development re: archived packages on CD/DVD

Maybe this  : http://projects.archlinux.org/git/gitwe … 615e7c52e7 ?

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pacman roulette : pacman -S $(pacman -Slq | LANG=C sort -R | head -n $((RANDOM % 10)))

thayer

Fellow

From: Vancouver, BC

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,560

Website

Re: Suggestion for pacman development re: archived packages on CD/DVD

Yeah, that sounds about right! Am I reading it right though... that it's a feature we'll see committed in a pacman update?

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thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

shining

Pacman Developer

Registered: 2006-05-10

Posts: 2,043

Re: Suggestion for pacman development re: archived packages on CD/DVD

Yes, not right now though, that's the repo which will normally leads to pacman 3.1

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pacman roulette : pacman -S $(pacman -Slq | LANG=C sort -R | head -n $((RANDOM % 10)))