Creating a local deb folder repo for apt usage

[Anonymous]

1. It’s recommended to be up to date so first run

sudo apt-get update

and

sudo apt-get upgrade

2. You will need the dpkg-dev package installed to use dpkg-scanpackages command.

sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev

3. Create a folder for downloaded deb packages. This can be in your home folder or a
samba share as well.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/debs

then place any downloaded packages in it. /usr/local directory will need sudo or root
permissions to copy them into it.

4. cd into that folder and create the file update-debs.sh to contain these lines.

#! /bin/bash
cd /usr/local/debs
dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null | gzip -9c > Packages.gz

5. make the script executable.

sudo chmod u+x ./update-debs.sh

6. move the script to /usr/bin. Can run from the folder each time if it is in your home folder.

sudo mv ./update-debs.sh /usr/bin/update-debs.sh

7. Open /etc/apt/sources.list in an editor as root and add this to it.

deb [ trusted=yes ] file:/usr/local/debs ./

8. run update-debs.sh

sudo update-debs.sh

for globally or

sudo ./update-debs.sh

if it’s in your home folder.

9. run apt

sudo apt-get update

then

sudo apt-get install {package name}

say yes to installing an unverified package.

10. when you add deb packages to the folder must run

sudo apt-get update-debs

and

sudo apt-get update

each time for apt to see the new packages. After updating the debs they will
also show up in synaptic.

[Member andyprough]

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Thank you, this is really awesome! The amount of detail you’ve given is absolutely perfect.

Can you tell us the value of this beyond just installing one package at a time, which I do with ‘sudo apt install ./package-name.deb’? I could see maybe using this to install a larger number of locally downloaded packages at one time. Or setting up a script to automatically download github/gitlab updates of my favorite programs for installation, and then using this method as part of my system-wide updating.

[Anonymous]

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@andyprough

if you have several packages in the folder the update will make them show up in synaptic.
This is a lot simpler and not as thorough as Xecures yad-bash project. As this doesn’t use X-windows.
not sure if a

sudo apt-get install /usr/local/*.deb

would work will have to try it here on a test setup soon.

@moderator should this thread have been under tips and tricks instead of software?

[Member Xecure]

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Just be sure that the source.list contains
deb [ trusted=yes ] file:/usr/local/debs ./
Or you will have trouble with apt, as it cannot find any signed gpg/pgp file to verify the local repo, you need to tell it to trust this source.

You can use the gui program I created for local repo management that includes most of those instructions automatically if someone prefers it.
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/apt-based-offline-repo-small-yad-bash-project/

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Xecure.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Anonymous]

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Thanks @Xecure,

That’s why I had apt-get instead of just apt is it only gives a warning
not an error for signed gpg/pgp. I added that to the original post.
I still have to read your whole thread on yad-bash project.

[Author]

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