The following packages...(too many)

[Tim Tebbit]

Jay Daniels wrote:
> 
> Now it would be nice if apt-get keeps all downloaded packages or at
> least latest version, then you could just burn these onto a dvd and
> reinstall then install all updates from dvd.  Is this the way it works
> or is this cache wiped out every time you update?
> 
> For instance, I want to create an updated dvd with all latest 8.04
> updates.  How do I do this?
> 
> 
> jay
> 
> 

They live there until you remove them with 'apt-get clean' [1]
I suppose you could get away with writing them to DVD, moving the archive to
the new machine bringing package.list along with you.

Generate package.list like this.

# dpkg --get-selections > package.list

On the new install run

# dpkg --set-selections < package.list
# apt-get install

I've never tried bringing an archive over. I have used get/set-selections on a
number of installs. Let us know how it works out.

[1]
APT-GET(8)
clean
           clean clears out the local repository of retrieved package files.
           It removes everything but the lock file from
           /var/cache/apt/archives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/. When
           APT is used as a dselect(8) method, clean is run automatically.
           Those who do not use dselect will likely want to run apt-get clean
           from time to time to free up disk space.