Re-use the stuff downloaded from apt-get

[Tomás Ó hÉilidhe]

I want to install Open Office, so I can just do:



apt-get install openoffice.org


However I need to install it on a few different machines, but my internet connection isn't great so I only want to download Open Office once.

It would be brilliant if I could do something like the following on my main PC:



apt-get just-download-the-stuff-needed openoffice.org


This would download Open Office for me so that I would be able to copy the installation files to a USB stick for use on other computers. Then I can go to another computer and do:



apt-get install-from-stuff-already-downloaded openoffice.org


Can this be done? Even if it isn't as easy as I've outlined here, could someone in the know please give me some steps to follow (and be as technical as you like in your explanation).

By the way I realise I can just go download OO from their website and save the installation file to USB, but I want to be able to do this for all apt-getable programs.

[howefield]

Use Synaptic to download your .debs and something like


sudo dpkg -i package_file.deb

to install them on each machine.

The .deb files will download to /var/cache/apt/archive/

[mcduck]

I want to install Open Office, so I can just do:



apt-get install openoffice.org


However I need to install it on a few different machines, but my internet connection isn't great so I only want to download Open Office once.

It would be brilliant if I could do something like the following on my main PC:



apt-get just-download-the-stuff-needed openoffice.org


This would download Open Office for me so that I would be able to copy the installation files to a USB stick for use on other computers. Then I can go to another computer and do:



apt-get install-from-stuff-already-downloaded openoffice.org


Can this be done? Even if it isn't as easy as I've outlined here, could someone in the know please give me some steps to follow (and be as technical as you like in your explanation).

By the way I realise I can just go download OO from their website and save the installation file to USB, but I want to be able to do this for all apt-getable programs.

When you install something using apt, the downloaded packages are cached into /var/cache/apt/archives. You can simply copy the .deb packages from there to new machines, and apt will use them instead of redownloading the same packages again. (or you can juts install the .deb packages on other machines with dpkg, if you want).

Also, take a look at Apt-On-CD (http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/)

[Tomás Ó hÉilidhe]

When you install something using apt, the downloaded packages are cached into /var/cache/apt/archives. You can simply copy the .deb packages from there to new machines, and apt will use them instead of redownloading the same packages again.

That sounds fantastic, gonna go try it out, thanks a million :D