Local Mirror

Note: If you want to create an official mirror see this page.

STOP

Warning: It is generally frowned upon to create a local mirror due the bandwidth that is required. One of the alternatives will likely fulfill your needs. Please look at the alternatives below.

Alternatives:

• Network Shared Pacman Cache
• pkgd

Local Mirror

Things to keep in mind:

• Bandwidth is not free for the mirrors. They must pay for all the data they serve you
  • This still applies although you pay your ISP
• There are many packages that will be downloaded that you will likely never use
• Mirror operators will much prefer you to download only the packages you need
• Really please look at the alternatives above

If you are absolutely certain that a local mirror is the only sensible solution, then follow the pointers below.

Server Configuration

Building Rsync Command

• Use the rsync arguments from DeveloperWiki:NewMirrors
• Select a server from the above article
• Exclude folder/files you don't want by including --exclude-from="/path/to/exclude.txt" in the rsync arguments. Example contents might include:

iso

#Exclude i686 Packages
*/os/i686
pool/*/*-i686.pkg.tar.xz
pool/*/*-i686.pkg.tar.gz

#Exclude x86_64 Packages
*/os/x86_64
pool/*/*-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
pool/*/*-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz

• All packages reside in the pool directory. Symlinks are then created from pool to core/extra/testing/etc..
  • As of 9/21/2010 this migration is not yet complete.
    • There may be actual packages, instead of symlinks, in ${repo}/os/${arch}
• Exclude any top-level directories that you do not need

Example: rsync $rsync_arguments --exclude="/path/to/exclude.txt" rsync://example.com/ /path/to/destination

Example Script

Warning: DO NOT USE THIS SCRIPT UNLESS YOU HAVE READ WARNINGS AT THE START OF THIS ARTICLE

Yes, this script is partially broken ON PURPOSE to avoid people doing copy-and-paste to create their own mirror. It should be easy to fix if you REALLY want a mirror.

#!/bin/bash

#################################################################################################
### It is generally frowned upon to create a local mirror due the bandwidth that is required.
### One of the alternatives will likely fulfill your needs.
### REMEMBER:
###   * Bandwidth is not free for the mirrors. They must pay for all the data they serve you
###       => This still applies although you pay your ISP 
###       => There are many packages that will be downloaded that you will likely never use
###       => Mirror operators will much prefer you to download only the packages you need
###   * Really please look at the alternatives on this page:
###       http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Local_Mirror
### If you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that a local mirror is the only sensible solution, then this
### script will get you on your way to creating it. 
#################################################################################################

# Configuration
SOURCE='rsync://mirror.example.com/archlinux'
DEST='/srv/mirrors/archlinux'
BW_LIMIT='500'
REPOS='core extra'
RSYNC_OPTS="-rtlHq --delete-after --delay-updates --copy-links --safe-links --max-delete=1000 --bwlimit=${BW_LIMIT} --delete-excluded --exclude=.* --exclude=iso/"
LCK_FLE='/var/run/repo-sync.lck'

# Make sure only 1 instance runs
if [ -e "$LCK_FLE" ] ; then
	OTHER_PID=`/bin/cat $LCK_FLE`
	echo "Another instance already running: $OTHER_PID"
	exit 1
fi
echo $$ > "$LCK_FLE"

for REPO in $REPOS ; do
	echo "Syncing $REPO"
	echo /usr/bin/rsync $RSYNC_OPTS ${SOURCE}/${REPO} ${DEST}
done

# Cleanup
/bin/rm -f "$LCK_FLE"

exit 0

Serving

• HTTP (LAN)
  • LAMP
  • Lighttpd
• FTP (LAN)
  • vsftpd
• Physical Media
  • Flash Drive
  • External HD

Client Configuration

• Add the proper Server= variable in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
• For physical media (such as flash drive) the following can be used: Server = file:///mnt/media/repo