Ubuntu Manpage: apt-offline - Offline APT Package manager

NAME

       apt-offline - Offline APT Package manager

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.

--simulate
Developer only. Used for testing.

--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

--apt-backend apt-get
APT backend to use. One of: apt, apt-get, python-apt

--generate-changelog
Generate changelog of the version to be downloaded

--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

Note: If neither of the --update or --upgrade option is explicitly mentioned, the set
command will generate signature for both the --update and --upgrade options.

get FILENAME [-h] [--socket-timeout ] [-d / --download-dir] [-s / --cache-dir] [--no-checksum]
[-t / --threads ] [--bundle] [--bug-reports] [--proxy-host] [--proxy-port] [--https-cert-
file --https-key-file] [--http-basicauth] [--disable-cert-check]
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.

--https-cert-file FILENAME
The Certificate-file to use if https-client-authentication is required on one or
multiple hosts.

--https-key-file FILENAME
The Certificate-key-file to use if https-client-authentication is required on
one or multiple hosts.

--disable-cert-check
Disable the check of https certificates on servers

--http-basicauth URL
A username/password encoded in the URL. Note Passwords with special characters
should be percent encoded as per RFC-3986 section 2.1

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.

--simulate
Developer only. Used for testing.

--skip-bug-reports
Skip listing of downloaded bug reports, if any.

--skip-changelog
Skip display of changelog, if any.

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

--strict-deb-check
With this option enabled, apt-offline delegate's .deb package checksum
validation to apt. While the .debs are already available, they are stored in the
temporary apt cache, where apt validates its checksum, before considering it for
further processing. Note: This does have the caveat that apt may need network
availability even though it doesn't download anything over the network. But it
does invoke the download routines and realizes that the payload is already
available. It then further proceeds with checksum validation

The default behavior is to not do strict checksum validation for .deb files.
Instead, apt-offline copies the .deb files to apt's download location. apt still
does size validation of the available .deb files and discards them in case there
is a mismatch.

--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

       -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.

NOTE1: 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

Example: apt-offline set set.uris --update

NOTE2: On a fresh setup installed through CD/DVD, the default APT setting lists
only the install media URLs. In such case, you need to add the default APT network
repositories to the list. For example, for a fresh (DVD) installed Debian box, add
the relevant repository to

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/apt-offline.list or /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian stable main contrib

(For Debian Stable)

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib

(For Debian Unstable/Sid)

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib

(For Debian Stretch)

deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib

(Security Updates for Debian Stable)

deb http://security.debian.org testing-security/updates main contrib

(Security Updates for Debian Testing)

Sequence 1: The following set of commands, when run in sequence, will update a
disconnected machine.

apt-offline set update.sig --update

(Generate the required data needed to update the APT database. Should be run on the
disconnected machine)

apt-offline get update.sig --bundle update.zip

(Download the required data needed to update the APT database. Should be run on a
machine with internet connectivity)

apt-offline install update.zip

(Installs the data needed to update the APT database. Should be run on the
disconnected machine)

Sequence 2: With successful completion of Sequence 1, the APT database on the disconnected
machine will be up-to-date. Now, the following set of commands, when run in sequence, will
upgrade a disconnected machine.

apt-offline set upgrade.sig --upgrade

(Genereate the required data needed to upgrade the upgradable packages. Should be
run on the disconnected machine)

apt-offline get upgrade.sig --bundle upgrade.zip

(Download the required data needed to upgrade the upgradable packages. Should be
run on a machine with internet connectivity)

apt-offline install upgrade.zip

(Installs the data needed to upgrade the upgradable packages. Should be run on the
disconnected machine)

After successful completion of
Sequence 1 and Sequence 2 in order, further running apt-get upgrade will result in
0 bytes of additional download.

AUTHOR

       apt-offline is written by Ritesh Raj Sarraf (rrs@researchut.com)

       If   you   wish   to   report   a   bug   in   apt-offline,   please    see    http://apt-
       offline.alioth.debian.org  or  http://github.com/rickysarraf/apt-offline  or else, send an
       email to me at rrs@researchut.com

DEDICATION

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