[arch-general] Best way to clone install (package selection to another box?)

[Christos Nouskas]

David Rosenstrauch wrote:
> David C. Rankin wrote:
> > 	If I want to clone my package selection to another box, is there a
> > better way to do it other than just parsing the files in
> > /var/cache/pacman/pkg to generate a list to feed to pacman after
> > install on the second box?
>
> One option is to have the first box serve as an Arch package mirror for
> the rest of the boxes.  i.e., box #1's mirrorlist file points to an
> external Arch mirror, box #'s 2 through n's mirrorlist files point to
> box #1.

 I've implemented 2 ways of caching packages in my LAN for saving 
bandwidth:

 One, by running a squid on a box, with a cache_dir size of around 1 GB 
and a maximum_object_size large enough to accommodate huge packages like 
openoffice. The rest of my archboxen use the squid box as a proxy (note: 
the mirrorlist servers order needs to be the same everywhere). This way, 
if a package is downloaded once, it will be cached for the rest to 
download at speeds over 6 MB/s :-)  The downside is that I end up having 
the same packages occupying disk space in many places and if I neglect to 
update a machine for some time, the packages expire from the squid cache.

 Two, by mounting the /var/cache/pacman/pkg directory of the masterbox 
with sshfs at the local /var/cache/pacman/pkg before pacman install 
operations. Pacman happily finds most packages already in place and only 
downloads the ones missing. Method number two is mirrorlist/proxy agnostic 
and has become my favorite, especially since I've started using the 
powerpill/aria2 combination.


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