SYNOPSIS

apt-offline [ARGUMENTS] [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION

apt-offline brings offline package management functionality to Debian based system. It can be used to download packages and its dependencies to be installed later on (or required to update) a disconnected machine. Packages can be downloaded from a different connected machine.

It can also fetch bug reports for the packages that are downloaded.

Unless the -h/-v or --help/--version options are given, one of the get, set or install commands must be provided.

set FILENAME [-h] [--install-packages PKG...PKG_N] [--install-src-packages PKG...PKG_N] --src-build-dep [--release release_name] [--update] [--upgrade] [--upgrade-type upgrade]

set generates a signature file with the data required to install on or update the disconnected machine.

FILENAME {apt-offline.sig} is the signature file generated on the machine. This file will contain all the information necessary for apt.

--install-packages [PKG...PKG_N]

Packages that need to be installed

--install-src-packages [PKG...PKG_N]

Source packages that need to be installed

--src-build-dep

Download Build Dependency packages for the source packages requested

--release release_name

Release target to install packages from

--update

Generate APT Database signature for an update. This is the equivalent of using apt-get update

--upgrade

Generate APT Database signature for package upgrade. This is the equivalent of using apt-get upgrade

--upgrade-type {upgrade_type}

Type of upgrade you would like to perform. Default is upgrade. Other valid types are dist-upgrade and dselect-upgrade

get FILENAME [-h] [--socket-timeout ] [-d / --download-dir] [-s / --cache-dir] [--no-checksum] [-t / --threads ] [--bundle] [--bug-reports] [--proxy-host] [--proxy-port]

get downloads APT data as per a signature file.

FILENAME {apt-offline.sig} is the signature file required for details about data to be downloaded. This file should have been generated by the above set command.

-d, --download-dir DIR_NAME

Download data to the specified DIR_NAME folder. If no folder name is specified, data is downloaded to a folder in the TEMPDIR path in the format apt-offline-download-$PID

-s, --cache-dir DIR_NAME

Look for data in the cache before downloading it from the internet. If you are on a Debian box, you would want to specify /var/cache/apt/archives here. If the data is not available in the cache, the downloaded data is also copied to the cache.

--no-checksum

Enabling this option will bypass the checksum verification of each downloaded file thus losing integrity of the package. Usage of this option is highly discouraged

-t, --threads NUM_OF_THREADS

Number of threads to spawn for downloads. Default is 1. Using too many threads can overload the servers, hence it is advisable to keep the number low

--bundle FILENAME

Create an archive file FILENAME. The file is archived in zip format

--bug-reports

Download bug reports for packages that are being downloaded. Currently only the Debian BTS is supported.

--proxy-host

Specify the Proxy Host to be used.

--proxy-port

Specify the Proxy port number to be used.

install FILE/FOLDER [-h] [--skip-bug-reports ] [--install-src-path PATH] [--allow-unauthenticated]

install installs APT data to the APT package database and updates it.

FILE {archive_bundle_file} Install data from the archive (bundle) file.

FOLDER {/folder/path} Install data from the folder path.

Either FILE or FOLDER argument can be provided to the install command.

--skip-bug-reports

Skip listing of downloaded bug reports, if any.

--allow-unauthenticated

Don't verify GPG signatures for the data to be installed to APT. Usage of this option is highly discouraged.

--install-src-path PATH

Path to filesystem where we want the source packages to be installed to. Default will be a folder in your TEMPDIR.

GLOBAL OPTIONS

-h, --help

Show help message

--verbose

Run in verbose mode

--test-windows

Developer only. Used for testing on windows

-v, --version

Display the version of the program

EXAMPLES

NOTE: argument/option handling

apt-offline relies on argparse for argument/option parsing. To explicitly instruct apt-offline about an argument, you can pass it with the -- delimiter.

Ex. apt-offline set --update --upgrade --install-packages wm2 -- foo.sig

By specifying the -- delimiter, we instruct apt-offline that foo.sig is an argument to the apt-offline command and not to the --install-packages option.

Otherwise, you could also use it positionally next to the set command

Ex. apt-offline set foo.sig --update --upgrade --install-packages wm2

apt-offline set FILENAME

This command will generate a signature file FILENAME for APT Package Database. To generate only the signature for updates, use the --update option. To generate only the signature for package upgrades, use the --upgrade option. Default behavior when no options are specified is to generate a signature for both the operations.

apt-offline get FILENAME

This command will fetch the data required for APT Package Database as per the signature file FILENAME generated by apt-offline get. To download bug reports also use the --bug-reports option. Currently supported bug tracker is Debian BTS only. By default, if neither of -d or --bundle options are specified, apt-offline downloads data into a folder inside the TEMPDIR environment folder in the format apt-offline-downloads-PID, where PID is the PID of the running apt-offline process. Example on a linux machine would be something like: /tmp/apt-offline-downloads-23242/

apt-offline install FILE|FOLDER

This command will sync the data downloaded by apt-offline get to the APT Package Database and update it. Depending on where the data was downloaded to or packed into, either the absolute FOLDER path or the archive FILE path can be specified.

The following sequence of commands will keep a machine up to date, with the package lists one step ahead of the upgrade:

apt-offline set foo.sig --upgrade --update Requests the packages needed to upgrade the machine, based on the current package lists. Also, requests the new package lists for the next update.

apt-offline get foo.sig -d FOLDER Downloads the packages for upgrading the machine, along with the package lists for the next time apt-offline set --upgrade is run.

apt-offline install FOLDER/FILE Positions the packages for the upgrade, along with new the package lists.

apt-get upgrade Upgrades to the state of the earlier package lists.

NOTE: On a freshly installed box, that was installed without the network, the package database is null. In that case, you first need to run apt-offline with just the --update option to ensure you have a meaningful package database

AUTHOR

apt-offline is written by Ritesh Raj Sarraf ([email protected])

If you wish to report a bug in apt-offline, please see http://apt-offline.alioth.debian.org or send an email to me at [email protected]

DEDICATION

This software is dedicated to the memory of my father Santosh Kumar Sarraf. We miss you a lot.