[arch-dev-public] will DVD size be the limit for our official repos?

[Paul Mattal]

eliott wrote:
>> I just want at least one opinion to be heard on this.. I routinely
>> install machines that have no (and can have no) internet access. I
>> mirror onto those machines the full set of Arch repositories (lately
>> including [community] too). The reason is because we don't yet know what
>> we will have to do when we set up these machines, and we need the whole
>> toolkit at our disposal.
>>
>> So there is at least one office full of people operating this way on
>> some machines, not because they want to but because they have to.
> 
> Hey. Here is an idea.
> Keep the installer the same, and create a 'packages' dvd or something
> like that. With just packages on it.
> People can mount it AFTER the install and specify it as a repository.
> No need to complicate the installer build cd, nor any reason to start
> shipping these huge install dvds when people *dont* need them.
> 
> As to difficulty making such a dvd.. it is freakin trivial.
> Create a directory.
> Have a file with packages listed in it.
> Use a shell script to have pacman download the packages into that
> directory (download-only option).
> Create the dvd based on that directory.
> 
> No need to make it bootable or whatever. bam.

This may already be what you're thinking, but it might also be cool 
to generate the pacman db for that "repo" on the fly in the 
installer. So that you can really mount this from anywhere you just 
have a pile of package files.

My other objection about testing still stands, but there's no reason 
not to make this easy anyway.

- P