1Installation methods for multiple binary CDs 2-------------------------------------------- 3 4 This package provides three new methods to be used within dselect in 5 order to access Debian binary packages stored across multiple binary CD 6 ROMs. It will install itself into the methods directory from dselect 7 so the user will be able to use them immediately. 8 9 These are the three new methods: 10 11 . Multiple binary CD-ROMs 12 13 . Multiple binary CD-ROMs, accessed through NFS 14 15 . Multiple binary CD-ROMs, pre-mounted 16 17Acquiring package data 18--------------------- 19 20 Since this method is derived from the 'mounted' method the user is 21 able to access up to five binary directories within 'dists/stable': 22 23 . main 24 . contrib 25 . non-free 26 . local 27 28 The selected method will try to read the 'Packages.cd' file from each 29 of these directories if it is available. 30 31Identifying the CD-ROM 32---------------------- 33 34 A unique name is associated to each CD. This name should correspond 35 with the label on the front of the CD. The name is also available on 36 the CD, so the system can find out which CD is in the drive at any 37 time. 38 39Installing the files 40-------------------- 41 42 At the beginning of the installation the 'multicd' package will sort 43 the list of to-be-installed packages and install them CD by CD. If a 44 different CD-ROM is required the user will be prompted to exchange 45 the CD-ROM. 46 47Preparing multiple binary CD-ROMs 48--------------------------------- 49 50 Since the 'multicd' methods need to know which packages are on which 51 CD-ROMs one cannot use regular 'Packages' files. An additional data 52 field "X-Medium:" is required. The first CD-ROM from the set should 53 contain all 'Packages.cd' files. To be more convenient you should 54 include the 'Packages.cd' files on all CD-ROMs. This ensures that 55 you don't have to start with the first CD-ROM all the time. 56 57 Additionally the package needs to gain information which CD-ROM is 58 currently used. Thus each CD-ROM contains the file '.disk/info' 59 which contains the symbolic name for the CD-ROM as specified by 60 "X-Medium:". 61 62 In order to be able to create the modified 'Packages.cd' files, you 63 have to use the '-M medium' option of dpkg-scanpackages (supported 64 in dpkg-dev >= 1.15.5). 65 66 To split the 'main' distribution into two CD-ROMs you'll need to 67 create a 'Packages.cd' file for each 'binary-$arch' directory. 68 Afterwards you simply append the second one to the first one and 69 put the resulting 'Packages.cd' file into both 'binary-$arch' 70 directories. 71 72Sample Layout 73------------- 74 75 CD1 .disk/info = "Debian GNU/Linux binary-i386" 76 dists/stable/main/binary-all/ 77 binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 78 binary-i386/net/foo.deb 79 contrib/binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 80 non-free/binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 81 82 CD2 .disk/info = "Debian GNU/Linux contrib-i386" 83 dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 84 contrib/binary-all/ 85 binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 86 binary-i386/net/foo.deb 87 non-free/binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 88 89 CD3 .disk/info = "Debian GNU/Linux non-free-i386" 90 dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 91 contrib/binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 92 non-free/binary-all/ 93 binary-i386/Packages.cd.gz 94 binary-i386/net/foo.deb 95 96 To re-generate the Packages file you have to chdir into 97 'dists/stable/$part' and issue 'dpkg-scanpackages' as follows. It's 98 assumed that you use regular compressed overrides files in 99 /pub/debian/indices. 100 101 CD1: dpkg-scanpackages -M "Debian GNU/Linux binary-i386" \ 102 binary-i386 /pub/debian/indices/override.hamm.gz \ 103 dists/stable/ > binary-i386/Packages 104 105 CD2: dpkg-scanpackages -M "Debian GNU/Linux contrib-i386" \ 106 binary-i386 /pub/debian/indices/override.hamm.contrib.gz \ 107 dists/stable/ > binary-i386/Packages 108 109 CD3: dpkg-scanpackages -M "Debian GNU/Linux non-free-i386" \ 110 binary-i386 /pub/debian/indices/override.hamm.non-free.gz \ 111 dists/stable/ > binary-i386/Packages 112 113Please direct comments to Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.north.de> 114