copying *.deb files into /var/cache/apt/archives

[Colin Law]

On 14 June 2012 15:27, Adam Funk <a24061 at ducksburg.com> wrote:
> Let's say I've just carried out some big upgrades, or even a
> dist-upgrade, on one computer on a LAN, & I want to do the same on
> another one.  Or I've done it on my computer at the office with a much
> faster internet connection, & I want to carry all the *.deb files home
> on a USB drive to save downloading time.
>
> I tried copying the new *.deb files from one machine's
> /var/cache/apt/archives directory into the same place on another
> machine, but neither aptitude nor the GUI update manager recognizes
> them; they try to download the packages again.  What do I need to do
> to make them re-index the archives directory or otherwise take notice
> of what's been copied in there?

That works for me, or at least it used to.  Are you sure it is
actually going to download them?

I now use squid-deb-proxy which is excellent and achieves the same
thing automatically.

Colin