Re: [gentoo-user] Re: update gentoo without network

[Neil Bothwick]

On Mon, 18 Jan 2016 15:05:35 +0100, Raffaele BELARDI wrote:

> > On Mon, 18 Jan 2016 12:38:13 +0100, Raffaele BELARDI wrote:
> >
> >> I suppose the database I'm looking for is /var/db/pkg, right?
> >
> > /var/lib/portage/world - this needs to be in sync in the two
> > environments.
>
> Ok but that's a 'static' snapshot of the packages; I also need to
> update in the chroot the list of currently installed packages and their
> versions and that's in /var/db/pkg, I think. I'll test it this evening.

Yes, you do.

>  > Are the two computers networked together? If so, you could run
>  > http_replicator on B and it would download the packages for A.
>
> No, the computers are on completely separated networks. The only way to
> bypass the security policy on one of the two networks is through
> removable media ;-)

I used a similar, but networked approach to build packages for slow
machines in containers in a faster computer. Because I was building in
the container, not just downloading, I didn't have to worry about the
package database, I just synced /var/lib/portage/world* and
etc/portage (excluding make.conf) and used a shared $PKG_DIR

If you don't mind a two step approach, you could

Download the latest portage snapshot on B
Unpack it on A
Run emerge -ufp @world on A and capture the output
Use that on B to download the files
Copy them back to A and emerge -u @world

That avoids the use of a chroot altogether but involves two round trips
across the sneakernet. You could possible save some of that by
transferring the portage snapshot and download list as email attachments,
assuming A has email.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Time for a diet!                             -- [NO FLABBIER].