Re: How to create like-official CD from list of packages

[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.]

In article <8VxSm-5z6-1@gated-at.bofh.it>, Owen Heisler wrote:
> On Tue, 2007.08.21 10:00, abdelkader belahcene wrote:
>> Thanks for reply,
>> But there is no answer for my questions, I fomulate it in another way:
>> Suppose you have a thounsand packages ( you downloded them because you
>> need them for your own purpose)
>>=20
>> you want to create CD exacly like the Offical CD, same arborescence,
>> pool/main/a, pool/main/b, ... packages and son on,
>> in one word, I need the script ( to customize of course for me) used
>> by the debian developpers to generate the CD.
>>=20
>> My goal is, instead of downloaing the 3 debian DVD ( or 22 CD), I
>> create just 2 or 3 cd for our purposes. The second goal is to do this
>> for the testing or sid distro, to get more recent packages.
>
> Have you looked at the debian-cd package? Perhaps it can help.

I have looked at the debian-cd package. It might be just a little bit difficult for someone who has not studied the structure of Debian to succeed without more specific advice than the name of a package. In particular, the README.gz file mentions, at the end of its "What is needed?" list, that *you need a Debian mirror*. It could reasonably be assumed from abdelkader's question that he does not have one. He just has a collection of .deb files. That is, nothing in debian-cd carries out the work of organizing your .deb file collection (perhaps found in /var/cache/apt/archives) into the directory structure found at http.us.debian.org/debian. Nothing in README.gz comes out and tells you what to do to create that structure. Nor does it tell you how much of the mirror is actually required for the various make targets to work. Nor does it tell you where to find that information.

I know it is the custom to answer only exactly the question that was asked, and I know the reason is that answers which are only puzzle pieces encourage newbies to become self sufficient, while volunteering additional advice they didn't know to ask for teaches them bad habits.
But in this case, sending abdelkader to the debian-cd package is just setting him up for failure. That's cruel.

So I have some different advice for abdelkader. 1. Capitalize the leading characters in your name. Writing your name all in lower case is an irritating affectation. And thanks for "arborescence." I learned a new word I'll probably use.

2. Think about what you are actually trying to accomplish. Maybe you need an actual Debian Mirror to create a variety of custom distribution disks. In that case you'll have to dig around, ask more questions, maybe find answers in the Policy manual or maybe it's just not documented.
Maybe what you're trying to do doesn't warrant all that work. Could you get away with tarring up your apt/archives directory and untarring it on the target machines?

Cameron

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