Re: [PLUG] linux synchronization

[Bill Jonas <bill@billjonas.com>]

On Mon, Nov 12, 2001 at 09:28:08PM -0500, Fred K Ollinger wrote:
> 	I'm thinking of installing debian on all comps then having them
> just read a mirror from one machine.

Check out apt-move.

> Does anyone know about scripts that are available? Also, how can I get
> apt-get to not ask any questions, but instead use the answers that I
> manually put in to the master pc?

'dpkg --get-selections' will show you the status of every package dpkg
knows about.  If you feed this list on stdin to 'dpkg --set-selections'
and then run 'apt-get dselect-upgrade', you'll have the same packages
installed on the new machine.

Look at apt-get(8).  There's a -y option to apt-get (also answers to the
names of --yes and --assume-yes) that will cause apt to not ask
question, but assume you would've answered yes, except for a few
undesirable situations.  You can also specify this in your
/etc/apt/apt.conf file with the 'APT::Get::Assume-Yes' config item.  (I
think that you'd specify it as 'APT::Get::Assume-Yes {"true";};', but
I'm not sure; I haven't specified stuff in apt.conf in ages.)

For those packages that use debconf, the answers to your questions are
stored somewhere, so you could copy those over.  (I think it's under
/var, perhaps /var/cache/debconf/*; I'm not certain that's it, though.)

Progeny, for a while, was working on something they called NOW which
would have probably done what you want
(http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:KWGkbpMG3sI:www.progeny.com/news/newsreleases/index.zulu%3Fnewsrelease%3D07_10_2000_2++site:www.progeny.com+progeny+now&hl=en).
However, they discontinued the project
(http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:rj0VzC4mhfU:www.progeny.com/develop/now/+progeny+now&hl=en)
in order to concentrate on things with more immediate revenue potential.
Maybe there's something useful in the list archives for the project
(http://lists.progeny.com/archive/progeny-now/).

-- 
Bill Jonas    *    bill@billjonas.com    *    http://www.billjonas.com/

Developer/SysAdmin for hire!   See http://www.billjonas.com/resume.html

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