Ubuntu/Debian Offline Repository Creation

README.md

Ubuntu/Debian Offline Repository Creation Gist

When I googled how to create my own offline repository of packages for use in an offline Ubuntu/Debian machine, the results where disheartening and the steps to be taken scattered all over the place.

The files within this gist will allow you to:

• Download specific apt-get packages... with dependencies included!
• Create a Packages.gz file so that you can add the repository folder you create to the target machine's /etc/apt/sources.list file.

Before using

This gist is comprised of 3 scripts:

• dependencies.sh
• getpkg.sh
• mkrepo.sh

Be sure to make them executable by chmod'ing them.

Dependencies

There are two scripts within this gist which will aid you in creating your offline repo:

• getpkg.sh
• mkrepo.sh

The script getpkg.sh depends on the package apt-rdepends.

The script mkrepo.sh depends on the program dpkg-scanpackages which is part of the dpkg-dev package.

In order to install this dependencies simply run:

$ sudo ./dependencies.sh

Downloading packages

To download an apt-get package (including its dependencies) simply run:

$ ./getpkg.sh <package-name> <packages-directory>

where <package-name> is the name of the package you are trying to store locally and <packages-directory> is the path to the directory where you'll be storing the downloaded packages.

Example:

$ ./getpkg.sh build-essential /home/user/my-repo

WARNING: Since this script downloads not only the deb package, but its dependencies as well, be sure you have a decent amount of free hard-disk space since things can quickly escalate. For example, the package ubuntu-desktop when downloaded with dependencies and all, weighs well over 300MB. You have been warned.

Turning your packages directory into a repo

The following should only be done once, after having downloaded all the packages you will be needing into your local offline repository, by having followed the steps in the Downloading packages section of this guide.

In order to make the directory into which you downloaded your repository's packages into an actual apt-get valid repo, just run:

$ ./mkrepo.sh <packages-directory>

where <packages-directory> is the path to the directory where you stored the downloaded packages.

Example:

$ ./mkrepo.sh /home/user/my-repo

Using your offline repo

Let's say you have a machine with no internet connection which runs Ubuntu, and you wish to install some apps not included in the provided apt-get repository.

You followed the steps in this guide and stored within a usb pen-drive a directory called my-repo, which contains the apps you want to install and a file named Packages.gz.

You plug this repo-wielding usb pen-drive into the offline Ubuntu machine, and you make sure to mount it to the route /media/repo-usb.

Now you can add the following line to the /etc/apt/sources.list file, in the offline Ubuntu machine:

deb file:/media/repo-usb/my-repo ./

Run the command:

$ sudo apt-get update

Et voilà! You can now sudo apt-get install your packages to your heart's content.

dependencies.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]; then
  echo "This script must be run as root" 1>&2
  exit 1
fi

apt-get update

apt-get install -y apt-rdepends dpkg-dev

getpkg.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

function error_exit
{
  echo "$1" 1>&2
  echo "Usage: ./getpkg.sh <package-name> <packages-directory>" 1>&2
  exit 1
}

PKG=$1
PKGDIR=$2

if [ ! $PKG ]
then
  error_exit "No package name set!"
fi

if [ ! $PKGDIR ]
then
  error_exit "No packages directory path set!"
fi

cd $PKGDIR

for i in $(apt-rdepends $PKG|grep -v "^ ")
  do ! apt-get download $i
done

mkrepo.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

function error_exit
{
  echo "$1" 1>&2
  echo "Usage: ./mkrepo.sh <packages-directory>" 1>&2
  exit 1
}

PKGDIR=$1

if [ ! $PKGDIR ]
then
  error_exit "No packages directory path set!"
fi

cd $PKGDIR

dpkg-scanpackages ./ /dev/null | gzip -9c > ./Packages.gz