Apt-Offline on RESEARCHUT

apt-offline 1.8.6

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 18:56:04 +0530

apt-offline 1.8.6

apt-offline version 1.8.6 was released almost 3 weeks ago on 08/February/2025

This release includes many bug fixes from community users.

Error out if we cannot initialize the APT lock. Thanks to Matthew Maslak
check for checksum and handle appropriately (#217) Thanks to Dan Whitman (Github:kyp44)
Honor the –allow-unauthenticated option. Thanks to João A (Github: Jonybat)
Retry when server reports 429 Too Many Requests occurs. Thanks to Zoltan Kelemen (Github: misterzed88)
Also support file:/// url types. Thanks to c4bhuf@github
Honor user specified extra gpg keyrings

Changelog

apt-offline (1.8.6-1) unstable; urgency=medium

 * Error out if we cannot initialize the APT lock.
 Thanks to Matthew Maslak
 * check for checksum and handle appropriately (#217)
 Thanks to Dan Whitman (Github:kyp44)
 * Honor the --allow-unauthenticated option.
 Thanks to João A (Github: Jonybat)
 * Retry when server reports 429 Too Many Requests occurs.
 Thanks to Zoltan Kelemen (Github: misterzed88)
 * Also support file:/// url types.
 Thanks to c4bhuf@github
 * Honor user specified extra gpg keyrings

 -- Ritesh Raj Sarraf <rrs@debian.org> Sat, 08 Feb 2025 20:46:24 +0530

Resources

Tarball and Zip archive for apt-offline are available here
Packages should be available in Debian.
Development for apt-offline is currently hosted here

apt-offline 1.8.4

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 20:47:04 +0530

apt-offline 1.8.4

apt-offline version 1.8.4 has been released.

This release includes many bug fixes but the important ones are:

Better GPG signature handling
Support for verifying InRelease files

Changelog

apt-offline (1.8.4-1) unstable; urgency=medium

 [ Debian Janitor ]
 * Update standards version to 4.5.0, no changes needed.

 [ Paul Wise ]
 * Clarify file type in unknown file message
 * Fix typos
 * Remove trailing whitespace
 * Update LICENSE file to match official GNU version
 * Complain when there are no valid keyrings instead of missing keyrings
 * Make all syncrhronised files world readable
 * Fix usage of indefinite articles
 * Only show the APT Offline GUI once in the menu
 * Update out of date URLs
 * Fix date and whitespace issues in the manual page
 * Replace stereotyping with an appropriate word
 * Switch more Python shebangs to Python 3
 * Correct usage of the /tmp/ directory
 * Fix YAML files
 * Fix usage of the log API
 * Make the copying of changelog lines less brittle
 * Do not split keyring paths on whitespace

 [ Ritesh Raj Sarraf ]
 * Drop the redundant import of the apt module.
 Thanks to github/dandelionred
 * Fix deprecation of get_bugs() in debianbts
 * Drop the unused IgnoredBugTypes
 * Set encoding for files when opening
 * Better error logging when apt fails
 * Don't mandate a default option
 * Demote metadata errors to verbose
 * Also log an error message for every failed .deb url
 * Check hard for the url type
 * Check for ascii armored signature files.
 Thanks to David Klnischkies
 * Add MIME type for InRelease files
 * Drop patch 0001-Drop-the-redundant-import-of-the-apt-module.patch.
 Now part of the 1.8.4 release
 * Prepare release 1.8.3
 * Prepare release 1.8.4
 * debian packaging
 + Bump debhelper compatibility to 13
 + Update install files

 [ Dean Anderson ]
 * [#143] Added support for verifying InRelease files

 -- Ritesh Raj Sarraf <rrs@debian.org> Sat, 12 Feb 2022 18:52:58 +0530

Resources

Tarball and Zip archive for apt-offline are available here
Packages should be available in Debian.
Development for apt-offline is currently hosted here

Apt Offline 1.8.2

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 19:52:51 +0530

apt-offline 1.8.2

I am pleased to announce the release of apt-offline version 1.8.2

This release has many bug fixes along with a long standing issue of signature validation

2017 - The year of realization and change

Back in 2017, the bug was reported that apt-offline did not validate apt meta Packages files. apt-offline was only doing a signature validation for the Release files but did no validation of the apt meta Packages files, which had their checksums listed in the Release files. This validation was completely missing in apt-offline and gave the user the wrong impression that validation was in place.

I had hoped to fix this issue soon when it was reported, to have it part of the next Debian Stable release. But that never happened. On the contrary, I think 2 stable releases happened in between. And now it is 2020.

2017 was a year to spend a large chunk of my time on real life issues, for good. I realized that it is important to always give precedence to personal life, fix issues, set realistic priorities, spend time on realizing the happenings around, get life rolling smooth and then come back to work. This helps sustain in the longer run. Otherwise, with no self, everything can fall apart catastrophically.

From that phase, I learned many things. I now have much more respect for people who really have been successful at committing a large amount of their time on a volunteer project like Debian. Having myself gone through the time crunch phase, I can only imagine how many of the fellow DDs manage their time, sustainably, over the years. There are many folks I have seen active for more than a decade and they still rock.

1.8.2 release

Because the apt meta validation was a major issue, I have decided to run through the workflow and explain how apt-offline reacts to invalid tampered data. Below are konsole captures, with snipped output, where not very relevant.

rrs@priyasi:/var/tmp/Debian-Build/Result$ sudo apt-offline set /tmp/set.uris
Gathering details needed for 'update' operation
Gathering details needed for 'upgrade' operation
16:33 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄

One item to pay attention to, in this step, is some of the errors that are reported. Not all repository admins enable all the apt meta data available on their mirrors. This is commonly seen for localization related files. Similarly, not all compression types are available on all the repository servers. Some may only have .xz based meta files hosted while others may have .gz ones. So, for apt-offline, which has to bridge the gap of the offline <=> online setup, there is more work.

For compression types, apt-offline cycles through the known list of types. Only if, after cycling through all the known compression types, if the return is still a 404, then we error out.

Similarly, for localization related meta, we do the same cycling. But in addition to that, there is the possibility that the repository admin may not have enabled the localization data to be served at all. In that case, apt-offline ultimately will report and error.

And that is what is shown below. Because I see them not breaking the functionality, I treat them as non-fatal errors.

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rrs@priyasi:/var/tmp/Debian-Build/Result$ apt-offline get /tmp/set-trimmed.uris --bundle /tmp/set.zip --threads 5

Fetching APT Data

WARNING: If you are on a slow connection, it is good to
WARNING: limit the number of threads to a low number like 2.
WARNING: Else higher number of threads executed could cause
WARNING: network congestion and timeouts.

Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/Release.gpg
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/Release
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/InRelease
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/Release.gpg
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/Release
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/Release.gpg done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/InRelease
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/Release.gpg done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/experimental/Release.gpg
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/Release done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/experimental/Release
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/InRelease done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/experimental/InRelease
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/Release done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/source/Sources.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/InRelease done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/source/Sources.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/experimental/Release.gpg done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/source/Sources.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/experimental/InRelease done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/experimental/Release done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/binary-i386/Packages.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/source/Sources.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/binary-all/Packages.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/source/Sources.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/i18n/Translation-en_IN.xz
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/i18n/Translation-en_IN.lzma
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/i18n/Translation-en.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/binary-all/Packages.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/i18n/Translation-en_US.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/source/Sources.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/Contents-amd64.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 done
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/i18n/Translation-en_US.lzma
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/Contents-i386.xz
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/Contents-all.xz
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/Contents-all.lzma
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/binary-amd64/Packages.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/binary-i386/Packages.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/binary-i386/Packages.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/binary-all/Packages.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/binary-all/Packages.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/i18n/Translation-en_IN.xz
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/i18n/Translation-en_IN.lzma
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/i18n/Translation-en.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/i18n/Translation-en_US.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/binary-i386/Packages.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/Contents-amd64.xz
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/i18n/Translation-en_US.lzma
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/Contents-i386.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/Contents-i386.gz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/Contents-all.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/Contents-amd64.gz done
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/binary-i386/Packages.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/binary-amd64/Packages.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/binary-all/Packages.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/binary-i386/Packages.xz done
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/binary-all/Packages.xz done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/i18n/Translation-en_IN.xz
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/i18n/Translation-en.xz
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/non-free/Contents-all.lzma
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/i18n/Translation-en_US.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 done
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/Contents-amd64.xz
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/i18n/Translation-en_IN.lzma
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/Contents-i386.xz
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/i18n/Translation-en_US.lzma
Downloading http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/Contents-all.xz
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/Contents-amd64.gz done
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/Contents-i386.gz done
ERROR: Giving up on URL http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/contrib/Contents-all.lzma
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/Contents-i386.gz done
http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/Contents-amd64.gz done
 81 / 81 items: [##############################] 100.0% of 101 MiB
Downloaded data to /tmp/set.zip
ERROR: Some items failed to download. Downloaded data may be incomplete
ERROR: Please run in verbose mode to see details about failed items


16:38 ♒ ॐ ☹ 😟=> 100 

First, lets unpack the archive file.

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rrs@priyasi:/var/tmp/Debian-Build/Result$ cd /tmp/
16:39 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄
rrs@priyasi:/tmp$ mkdir set-folder
16:39 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄
rrs@priyasi:/tmp$ cd set-folder/
16:39 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄
rrs@priyasi:/tmp/set-folder$ unzip ../set.zip
Archive: ../set.zip
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_Release.gpg
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_Release.gpg
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_Release
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_InRelease
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_Release
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_InRelease
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_experimental_Release.gpg
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_experimental_InRelease
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_experimental_Release
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_source_Sources.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_source_Sources.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-all_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_source_Sources.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_i18n_Translation-en.bz2
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-amd64_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-i386_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-all_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_Contents-i386.gz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_Contents-amd64.gz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-amd64_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-all_Packages.xz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_i18n_Translation-en.bz2
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-amd64.gz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-i386.gz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_Contents-i386.gz
 inflating: deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_Contents-amd64.gz
16:39 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄
rrs@priyasi:/tmp/set-folder$ ls
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_experimental_InRelease deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_Contents-i386.gz
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_experimental_Release deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_i18n_Translation-en.bz2
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_experimental_Release.gpg deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_source_Sources.xz
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-all_Packages.xz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-all_Packages.xz
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages.xz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-amd64_Packages.xz
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages.xz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-i386_Packages.xz
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-amd64.gz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_Contents-amd64.gz
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-i386.gz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_Contents-i386.gz
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_source_Sources.xz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_source_Sources.xz
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_InRelease deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_Release
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-all_Packages.xz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_Release.gpg
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-amd64_Packages.xz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_InRelease
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages.xz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_Release
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_Contents-amd64.gz deb.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_Release.gpg
16:39 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄 

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/set-folder$ echo 112312312321 >> deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_source_Sources.xz
16:40 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄 

So in this step, we tell apt-offline to install the downloaded files. This will also include the tampered file. The output you see below is standard and reports everything to have succeeded.

But note that the tampered file is not in the list of synced files. That file is just simply missing from the list.

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/set-folder$ sudo apt-offline install .
Proceeding with installation
gpgv: Signature made Friday 07 February 2020 01:55:24 PM IST
gpgv: using RSA key 16E90B3FDF65EDE3AA7F323C04EE7237B7D453EC
gpgv: Good signature from "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (9/stretch) <ftpmaster@debian.org>"
gpgv: Signature made Friday 07 February 2020 01:55:43 PM IST
gpgv: using RSA key 0146DC6D4A0B2914BDED34DB648ACFD622F3D138
gpgv: Good signature from "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (10/buster) <ftpmaster@debian.org>"
gpgv: Signature made Friday 07 February 2020 01:56:44 PM IST
gpgv: using RSA key 16E90B3FDF65EDE3AA7F323C04EE7237B7D453EC
gpgv: Good signature from "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (9/stretch) <ftpmaster@debian.org>"
gpgv: Signature made Friday 07 February 2020 01:56:45 PM IST
gpgv: using RSA key 0146DC6D4A0B2914BDED34DB648ACFD622F3D138
gpgv: Good signature from "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (10/buster) <ftpmaster@debian.org>"
gpgv: Signature made Friday 07 February 2020 01:56:58 PM IST
gpgv: using RSA key 16E90B3FDF65EDE3AA7F323C04EE7237B7D453EC
gpgv: Good signature from "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (9/stretch) <ftpmaster@debian.org>"
gpgv: Signature made Friday 07 February 2020 01:56:58 PM IST
gpgv: using RSA key 0146DC6D4A0B2914BDED34DB648ACFD622F3D138
gpgv: Good signature from "Debian Archive Automatic Signing Key (10/buster) <ftpmaster@debian.org>"
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-amd64.gz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-i386.gz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-all_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_source_Sources.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_Contents-amd64.gz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_Contents-i386.gz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-all_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-amd64_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_source_Sources.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_Contents-amd64.gz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_Contents-i386.gz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-all_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-amd64_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-i386_Packages.xz synced.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 synced.
16:41 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄 

So, in the above example, apt-offline discarded the tampered file and the final exit of the command was a success. Now, let’s run the same command with the ‘–verbose’ switch. Below is the output.

Notice the highlighted line below, where it reports that the file is tampered and does not match the checksum

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/set-folder$ sudo apt-offline install . --verbose
VERBOSE: Namespace(allow_unauthenticated=False, func=<function installer at 0x7f6a6c7c54d0>, install='.', install_simulate=False, install_src_path=None, skip_bug_reports=False, skip_changelog=False, strict_deb_check=False, verbose=True)
VERBOSE: No changelog available
Proceeding with installation
VERBOSE: {}
VERBOSE: Great!!! No bugs found for all the packages that were downloaded.

VERBOSE: APT Signature verification path is: ['/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/', '/etc/apt/trusted.gpg']
VERBOSE: Adding /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-jessie-automatic.gpg to the apt-offline keyring
VERBOSE: Adding /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-jessie-security-automatic.gpg to the apt-offline keyring
VERBOSE: Adding /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-jessie-stable.gpg to the apt-offline keyring
VERBOSE: Adding /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-stretch-automatic.gpg to the apt-offline keyring
VERBOSE: Adding /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-stretch-security-automatic.gpg to the apt-offline keyring
VERBOSE: Adding /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-stretch-stable.gpg to the apt-offline keyring
VERBOSE: Adding /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-buster-automatic.gpg to the apt-offline keyring
VERBOSE: Adding /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-buster-security-automatic.gpg to the apt-offline keyring

.....snipped.....

VERBOSE: localFile ./deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_Contents-amd64.gz Integrity with checksum 024957d30be2acbb9e66c9802f825115d32437420300a2b28ab60ae4ecb76fcf matches
VERBOSE: localFile ./deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_Contents-i386.gz Integrity with checksum 5266d2f3ea41c4e988e71b4bbe58dd1178a23ce1ed50908c73a0cb39201136e3 matches
VERBOSE: localFile ./deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-all_Packages.xz Integrity with checksum 9f0f3aa5560452d45f82c5121ea844c68e641c8fbb56ef69d570c641b6cce662 matches
VERBOSE: localFile ./deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-amd64_Packages.xz Integrity with checksum 811f7752a13dfcbd748478dda267fb810c52fc14769d2d5c7871c75e35350d66 matches
VERBOSE: localFile ./deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-i386_Packages.xz Integrity with checksum 7df3512b5da7258613774921023d68c71858d89fddafd694e2dfd19cef54314b matches
VERBOSE: localFile ./deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 Integrity with checksum 1bf3cd0cff6fadf1a74280912c3229374344cd6c347d2f533b001843d84b236d matches
VERBOSE: localFile ./deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_source_Sources.xz integrity doesn't match to checksum a94589ab3c204bb4d710d72ea21abac8007b14e5c5dacbe43be07c51ba5f0a0a
VERBOSE: Synchronized file to /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-amd64
VERBOSE: /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-amd64 file synced to APT.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-amd64.gz synced.
VERBOSE: Synchronized file to /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-i386
VERBOSE: /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-i386 file synced to APT.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_Contents-i386.gz synced.
VERBOSE: Synchronized file to /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-all_Packages
VERBOSE: /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-all_Packages file synced to APT.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-all_Packages.xz synced.
VERBOSE: Synchronized file to /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages
VERBOSE: /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages file synced to APT.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-amd64_Packages.xz synced.
VERBOSE: Synchronized file to /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages
VERBOSE: /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages file synced to APT.
deb.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages.xz synced.

.....snipped.....

16:42 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄

This is pretty much the validation required and done by apt-offline for apt meta Packages files.

Please do file bug reports if you think the overall exit status of apt-offline under such scenarios should be different than what it is currently.

For the tampered meta Packages files:

should the visual representation be different ?
Should an error be printed ?
What about the exit status ?

Similarly, for the ‘get’ operation:

Should we do something different for non-existing localization files on the repository server ?
Is there any different way to go through the supported list of compression types for meta files ?

apt-offline allows a user to install a new package and all its dependencies easily on the offline machine. The below workflow will demonstrate the same and will also go through the tampering of the .deb files and see how apt-offline/apt deals with it.

In below example, a user wants to install the gnome-todo package on the offline machine, which has a couple of dependencies.

rrs@priyasi:/tmp/set-folder$ sudo apt install gnome-todo
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 784 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,337 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.
16:47 ♒ ॐ ☹ 😟=> 1

The below command generates a (signature) file, which will include all details about requested package and its dependencies.

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/set-folder$ sudo apt-offline set /tmp/gnome-todo.uris --install-packages gnome-todo
Gathering installation details for package ['gnome-todo']
16:48 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄 

Below is the usual step to be performed on the online machine with the generated gnome-todo.uris signature file.

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/set-folder$ apt-offline get /tmp/gnome-todo.uris --download-dir /tmp/gnome-todo --bug-reports --threads 3

Fetching APT Data

WARNING: If you are on a slow connection, it is good to
WARNING: limit the number of threads to a low number like 2.
WARNING: Else higher number of threads executed could cause
WARNING: network congestion and timeouts.

Downloading libpeas-common - 187 KiB
Downloading libpeas-1.0-0 - 196 KiB
Downloading gnome-todo-common - 228 KiB
libpeas-common done
Fetching bug report for libpeas-common
libpeas-1.0-0 done
Fetching bug report for libpeas-1.0-0
gnome-todo-common done
Fetching bug report for gnome-todo-common
Fetched bug report for libpeas-common
Downloading libgnome-todo - 6 KiB
libgnome-todo done
Fetching bug report for libgnome-todo
Fetched bug report for gnome-todo-common
Downloading gnome-todo - 146 KiB
gnome-todo done
Fetching bug report for gnome-todo
Fetched bug report for libpeas-1.0-0
Fetched bug report for libgnome-todo
Fetched bug report for gnome-todo
 5 / 5 items: [##############################] 100.0% of 765 KiB
Downloaded data to /tmp/gnome-todo
16:49 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄 

Note: The fact is that apt-offline will not do any checksum validation for the .deb files. The validation is completely delegated to apt.

rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt-offline install -h
usage: apt-offline install [-h] [--verbose] [--simulate]
 [--install-src-path INSTALL_SRC_PATH]
 [--skip-bug-reports] [--skip-changelog]
 [--allow-unauthenticated] [--strict-deb-check]
 apt-offline-download.zip | apt-offline-download/

positional arguments:
 apt-offline-download.zip | apt-offline-download/
 Install apt-offline data, a bundle file or a directory

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 --verbose Enable verbose messages
 --simulate Just simulate. Very helpful when debugging
 --install-src-path INSTALL_SRC_PATH
 Install src packages to specified path.
 --skip-bug-reports Skip the bug report check
 --skip-changelog Skip display of changelog
 --allow-unauthenticated
 Ignore apt gpg signatures mismatch
 --strict-deb-check Perform strict checksum validaton for downloaded .deb
 files
16:50 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄

and from the manpage:

 --strict-deb-check
 With this option enabled, apt-offline delegate's .deb package checksum validation to apt. While the .debs are already avail‐
 able, they are stored in the temporary apt cache, where apt validates its checksum, before considering it for further pro‐
 cessing. Note: This does have the caveat that apt may need network availability even though it doesn't download anything
 over the network. But it does invoke the download routines and realizes that the payload is already available. It then fur‐
 ther proceeds with checksum validation

 The default behavior is to not do strict checksum validation for .deb files. Instead, apt-offline copies the .deb files to
 apt's download location. apt still does size validation of the available .deb files and discards them in case there is a mis‐
 match.

Before we proceed with the example of checksum verification for .deb files, lets do a pristine run of the downloaded files, without any tampering to them.

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt-offline install .
Proceeding with installation


Following are the list of bugs present.
822525 gnome-todo : gnome-todo: Memory leak while loading local and remote lists
853114 gnome-todo : no longer loads caldav lists
883961 libgnome-todo : libgnome-todo: Not actually a library
829470 libpeas-1.0-0 : libpeas: Python Plugin Broken
(Y) Yes. Proceed with installation
(N) No, Abort.
(R) Redisplay the list of bugs.
(Bug Number) Display the bug report from the Offline Bug Reports.
(?) Display this help message.
What would you like to do next: (y, N, ?)y
gnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb file synced.
libgnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb file synced.
gnome-todo-common_3.28.1-5_all.deb file synced.
libpeas-1.0-0_1.22.0-5_amd64.deb file synced.
libpeas-common_1.22.0-5_all.deb file synced.
16:51 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄
rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt install gnome-todo
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/784 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,337 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.
16:51 ♒ ॐ ☹ 😟=> 1 

In the above example, everything is clean and all requirements to apt are satisfied.

Here’s one more exaple, where we invoke the non-default --strict-deb-check option.

Everything remains the same, but apt gives a prompt saying that it needs to download the payload from the web. The reality is that if you just proceed with yes, nothing gets downloaded.

Note: It is not possible to explain that with a still presentation and I’m lazy to make a motion object of it.

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt-offline install . --strict-deb-check
Proceeding with installation


Following are the list of bugs present.
822525 gnome-todo : gnome-todo: Memory leak while loading local and remote lists
853114 gnome-todo : no longer loads caldav lists
883961 libgnome-todo : libgnome-todo: Not actually a library
829470 libpeas-1.0-0 : libpeas: Python Plugin Broken
(Y) Yes. Proceed with installation
(N) No, Abort.
(R) Redisplay the list of bugs.
(Bug Number) Display the bug report from the Offline Bug Reports.
(?) Display this help message.
What would you like to do next: (y, N, ?)y
gnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb file synced.
libgnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb file synced.
gnome-todo-common_3.28.1-5_all.deb file synced.
libpeas-1.0-0_1.22.0-5_amd64.deb file synced.
libpeas-common_1.22.0-5_all.deb file synced.
16:52 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄
rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt install gnome-todo
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 784 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,337 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 libpeas-common all 1.22.0-5 [192 kB]
Get:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 libpeas-1.0-0 amd64 1.22.0-5 [201 kB]
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 gnome-todo-common all 3.28.1-5 [234 kB]
Get:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 libgnome-todo amd64 3.28.1-5 [6,260 B]
Get:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 gnome-todo amd64 3.28.1-5 [150 kB]
Retrieving bug reports... Done
Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done
.....snipped.....
16:53 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄 

To sum it up, this one is an odd case because though nothing for the debs is downloaded, BUT, the network needs to be active for this co-routine to run. If, say, the network is unavailable, apt complains. I haven’t checked, but apt does invoke some network code.

But no payload is downloaded. apt just validates and realizes that all the to-be-downloaded data, is intact and available.

rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ echo fasdfadsfasdfasdfasd >> gnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb
16:54 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄

rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt clean
16:54 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄

So we tampered one of the .deb files, gnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb. And ask apt-offline to run its ‘install’ operation along with the new --strict-deb-check option.

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt-offline install . --strict-deb-check
Proceeding with installation


Following are the list of bugs present.
822525 gnome-todo : gnome-todo: Memory leak while loading local and remote lists
853114 gnome-todo : no longer loads caldav lists
883961 libgnome-todo : libgnome-todo: Not actually a library
829470 libpeas-1.0-0 : libpeas: Python Plugin Broken
(Y) Yes. Proceed with installation
(N) No, Abort.
(R) Redisplay the list of bugs.
(Bug Number) Display the bug report from the Offline Bug Reports.
(?) Display this help message.
What would you like to do next: (y, N, ?)y
gnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb file synced.
libgnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb file synced.
gnome-todo-common_3.28.1-5_all.deb file synced.
libpeas-1.0-0_1.22.0-5_amd64.deb file synced.
libpeas-common_1.22.0-5_all.deb file synced.
16:54 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄

rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt install gnome-todo
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 784 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,337 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 libpeas-common all 1.22.0-5 [192 kB]
Get:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 libpeas-1.0-0 amd64 1.22.0-5 [201 kB]
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 gnome-todo-common all 3.28.1-5 [234 kB]
Get:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 libgnome-todo amd64 3.28.1-5 [6,260 B]
Get:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 gnome-todo amd64 3.28.1-5 [150 kB]
Fetched 150 kB in 1s (141 kB/s)
Retrieving bug reports... Done
Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done

16:55 ♒ ॐ ☹ 😟=> 100 

Pay attention to the downloaded data which is only 150 KiB, for the gnome-todo package, which was tampered. Even though apt stated that it needs to download 784 KiB of data, it actually downloaded 150 KiB only. All data was already downloaded by apt-offline but we had tampered one of the files, which resulted in it being re-downloaded.

Now, lets do one more run with the default behavior of apt-offline, i.e. without the --strict-deb-check option. This will result in apt (internally) detecting the tampering and prompting the user that the (tampered) file needs to be downloaded

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rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt-offline install .
Proceeding with installation


Following are the list of bugs present.
822525 gnome-todo : gnome-todo: Memory leak while loading local and remote lists
853114 gnome-todo : no longer loads caldav lists
883961 libgnome-todo : libgnome-todo: Not actually a library
829470 libpeas-1.0-0 : libpeas: Python Plugin Broken
(Y) Yes. Proceed with installation
(N) No, Abort.
(R) Redisplay the list of bugs.
(Bug Number) Display the bug report from the Offline Bug Reports.
(?) Display this help message.
What would you like to do next: (y, N, ?)y
gnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb file synced.
libgnome-todo_3.28.1-5_amd64.deb file synced.
gnome-todo-common_3.28.1-5_all.deb file synced.
libpeas-1.0-0_1.22.0-5_amd64.deb file synced.
libpeas-common_1.22.0-5_all.deb file synced.
16:56 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄
rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt^C
16:56 ♒ ॐ ☹ 😟=> 130
rrs@priyasi:/tmp/gnome-todo$ sudo apt install gnome-todo
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 gnome-todo gnome-todo-common libgnome-todo libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 150 kB/784 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,337 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 gnome-todo amd64 3.28.1-5 [150 kB]
Fetched 150 kB in 0s (448 kB/s)
Retrieving bug reports... Done
Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done
.....snipped......
16:57 ♒ ॐ ☺ 😄 

Notice the highlighted line, which gives a less confusing, realistic summary of what needs to be done. In this case, apt is prompting the user that 150 KiB of data needs to be downloaded, which indeed is the case.

apt-offline 1.8.1 released

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 07:38:15 -0400

apt-offline 1.8.1 [released](https://github.com/rickysarraf/apt- offline/releases/tag/v1.8.1).

This is a bug fix release fixing some python3 glitches related to module imports. Recommended for all users.

apt-offline (1.8.1) unstable; urgency=medium

Switch setuptools to invoke py3
No more argparse needed on py3
Fix genui.sh based on comments from pyqt mailing list
Bump version number to 1.8.1

-- Ritesh Raj Sarraf rrs@debian.org Sat, 01 Jul 2017 21:39:24 +0545

What is apt-offline

Description: offline APT package manager
apt-offline is an Offline APT Package Manager.
.
apt-offline can fully update and upgrade an APT based distribution without
connecting to the network, all of it transparent to APT.
.
apt-offline can be used to generate a signature on a machine (with no network).
This signature contains all download information required for the APT database
system. This signature file can be used on another machine connected to the
internet (which need not be a Debian box and can even be running windows) to
download the updates.
The downloaded data will contain all updates in a format understood by APT and
this data can be used by apt-offline to update the non-networked machine.
.
apt-offline can also fetch bug reports and make them available offline.

apt-offline 1.8.0 released

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Sun, 21 May 2017 17:17:37 -0400

I am pleased to announce the release of apt-offline , version 1.8.0. This release is mainly a forward port of apt-offline to Python 3 and PyQt5. There are some glitches related to Python 3 and PyQt5, but overall the CLI interface works fine. Other than the porting, there’s also an important bug fixed, related to memory leak when using the MIME library. And then there’s some updates to the documentation (user examples) based on feedback from users.

Release is availabe from [Github](https://github.com/rickysarraf/apt- offline/releases/tag/v1.8.0) and [Alioth](http://apt- offline.alioth.debian.org)

What is apt-offline ?

Description: offline APT package manager
apt-offline is an Offline APT Package Manager.
.
apt-offline can fully update and upgrade an APT based distribution without
connecting to the network, all of it transparent to APT.
.
apt-offline can be used to generate a signature on a machine (with no network).
This signature contains all download information required for the APT database
system. This signature file can be used on another machine connected to the
internet (which need not be a Debian box and can even be running windows) to
download the updates.
The downloaded data will contain all updates in a format understood by APT and
this data can be used by apt-offline to update the non-networked machine.
.
apt-offline can also fetch bug reports and make them available offline.

apt-offline 1.7.2 released

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 12:01:26 -0500

I am happy to announce the release of apt-offline 1.7.2. This has turned out in time for the next release of Debian, i.e. Debian Stretch.

A long standing cosmetic issue in CLI of the progress bar total item count has been fixed. There are also a bunch of other bug fixes, for which the specifics are present in the git logs.

Also, in this release, we’ve tried to catch-up on the Graphical Interface, adding the GUI equivalent of the features, that were added to apt-offline in the recent past.

In 1.7.1, we added the changelog option, and in this release, we’ve added the GUI equivalent of it.

The ‘set’ command had had many new options. So in this release the ‘set’ command’s GUI has those options added.

I hope you like this release. Please test and file bug reports in time so that we have a bug free version for Debian Stretch.

Future tasks now will focus on porting the GUI to PyQt5 first and then apt- offline to Python3. Any help is welcome.

You can download apt-offline from the [github](https://github.com/rickysarraf /apt-offline) page or the alioth page. For Debian users, the package will show up in the repository soon.

PS: What is apt-offline ?

Description: offline APT package manager
apt-offline is an Offline APT Package Manager.
.
apt-offline can fully update and upgrade an APT based distribution without
connecting to the network, all of it transparent to APT.
.
apt-offline can be used to generate a signature on a machine (with no network).
This signature contains all download information required for the APT database
system. This signature file can be used on another machine connected to the
internet (which need not be a Debian box and can even be running windows) to
download the updates.
The downloaded data will contain all updates in a format understood by APT and
this data can be used by apt-offline to update the non-networked machine.
.
apt-offline can also fetch bug reports and make them available offline.

apt-offline 1.7.1 released

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 06:41:50 -0400

I am happy to mention the release of apt-offline, version 1.7.1.

This release includes many bug fixes, code cleanups and better integration.

Integration with PolicyKit
Better integration with apt gpg keyring
Resilient to failures when a sub-task errors out
New Feature: Changelog
- This release adds the ability to deal with package changelogs (’ set ’ command option: --generate-changelog ) based on what is installed, extract changelog (Currently support with python-apt only) from downloaded packages and display them during installation (’ install ’ command opiton: --skip-changelog , if you want to skip display of changelog)
New Option: --apt-backend
- Users can now opt to choose an apt backend of their choice. Currently support: apt, apt-get (default) and python-apt

Hopefully, there will be one more release, before the release to Stretch.

apt-offline can be downloaded from its homepage or from Github page.

Update: The PolicyKit integration requires running the apt-offline-gui command with pkexec (screenshot). It also work fine with sudo, su etc.

apt-offline backports for Debian Jessie

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 08:57:22 -0400

For Debian Jessie, the version of apt-offline available is: 1.5.1. This version has had some [issues](https://bugs.debian.org/cgi- bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=apt-offline;dist=unstable).

My very 1st backports is available in the form of [apt-offline 1.7 for ](https://packages.debian.org/source/jessie-backports/apt- offline)[Debian](https://packages.debian.org/source/jessie-backports/apt- offline) Jessie Backports. For Debian Jessie users, this should fix most of the issues.

apt-offline 1.7

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 07:29:29 -0500

Hello World,

In this part of the world, today is a great day. Today is Diwali - the festival of lights

On this day, I am very happy to announce the release of apt-offline , version 1.7. This release brings in a large number of fixes and is a recommended update. Thanks to Bernd Dietzel for uncovering the shell injection bug which could be exploited by carefully crafting the signature file. Since apt-offline could be run as ‘root’, this one was an important bug. Also thanks to him for the fix.

During my tests, I also realized that apt-offline’s --install-src-packages implementation had broken over time. --install-src-packages option can be useful to users who would like the offline ability to download a [Debian] source package , along with all its Build Dependencies.

For further details on many of the other fixes, please refer to the git repository at the homepage. Packages for Debian (and derivatives) are already in the queue.

Wishing You and Your Loved Ones a Very Happy Diwali.

apt-offline 1.6

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 05:32:07 -0500

I am pleased to announce the release of apt-offline - 1.6

This release is mostly a bug fix release, which every user should upgrade to. It also fixes a major bug in the way we limited the validation of GPG integrity, for the APT repository lists ( Thank you Paul Wise ).

Also, In the last release, we migrated from custom magic library to the python shipped ctype python-magic library. That allowed some bugs to creep, and hopefully now, all those bugs should be fixed. A big thanks to Roland Summers for his bug reports and continuous feedback.

_ What is apt-offline ?_

Description-en: offline APT package manager
apt-offline is an Offline APT Package Manager.
.
apt-offline can fully update and upgrade an APT based distribution without
connecting to the network, all of it transparent to APT.
.
apt-offline can be used to generate a signature on a machine (with no network).
This signature contains all download information required for the APT database
system. This signature file can be used on another machine connected to the
internet (which need not be a Debian box and can even be running windows) to
download the updates.
The downloaded data will contain all updates in a format understood by APT and
this data can be used by apt-offline to update the non-networked machine.
.
apt-offline can also fetch bug reports and make them available offline.

Debian changelog for the 1.6 release.

apt-offline (1.6) experimental; urgency=medium
* [2a4a7f1] Don't abuse exception handlers.
Thanks to R-Sommer
* [afc51b3] MIME type for a deb package.
Thanks to R-Sommer
* [ec2d539] Also include debian-archive-keyring.
Thanks to Hans-Christoph Steiner (Closes: #748082)
* [dc602ac] Update MIME type for .gpg
* [c4f9b71] Cycle through possible apt keyrings.
Thanks to Paul Wise (Closes: #747163)
* [de0fe4d] Clarify manpage for install
* [b5e1075] Update manpage with some doc about argparse positional
values to arguments
* [c22d64d] Port is data type integer.
Thanks to Roland Sommer
* [67edebe] autodetect release name
* [5803141] Disable python-apt support
-- Ritesh Raj Sarraf <rrs@debian.org> Wed, 14 Jan 2015 15:34:45 +0530

[1] https://alioth.debian.org/projects/apt-offline/

apt-offline 1.5

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 14:17:12 -0400

I am very pleased to announce the release of apt-offline, version 1.5.

In version 1.4, the offline bug report functionality had to be dropped. In version 1.5, it is back again. apt-offline now uses the new Debian native BTS library. Thanks to its developers, this library is much more slim and neat. The only catch is that it depends on the SOAPpy library which currently is not stock in Python. If you run apt-offline of Debian, you may not have to worry as I will add a Recommends on that package. For users using it on Microsoft Windows, please ensure that you have the SOAPpy library installed. It is available on pypi.

The old bundled magic library has been replaced with the version of python magic library that Debian ships. This library is derived from the file package and is portable on almost all Unixes. For Debian users, there will be a Recommends on it too.

There were also a bunch of old, outstanding, and annoying bugs that have been fixed in this release. For a full list of changes, please refer to the git logs.

With this release, apt-offline should be in good shape for the Jessie release.

apt-offline is available on Alioth @ https://alioth.debian.org/projects/apt- offline/

apt-offline 1.4

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Sun, 31 Aug 2014 12:41:18 -0400

apt-offline 1.4 has been released [1]. This is a minor bug fix release. In fact, one feature, offline bug reports (–bug-reports), has been dropped for now.

The Debian BTS interface seems to have changed over time and the older debianbts.py module (that used the CGI interface) does not seem to work anymore. The current debbugs.py module seems to have switched to the SOAP interface.

There are a lot of changes going on personally, I just haven’t had the time to spend. If anyone would like to help, please reach out to me. We need to use the new debbugs.py module. And it should be cross-platform.

Also, thanks to Hans-Christoph Steiner for providing the bash completion script.

[1] https://alioth.debian.org/projects/apt-offline/

apt-offline - 1.3

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:16:07 -0500

It is still 2012 in this part of the world and the world is still intact. Since nothing major happened, I thought of spending the new gifted time to add a long pending item to apt-offline. As shown in the screen shots, apt- offline’s GUI now has support to detect and display the downloaded offline bug reports.

This is part of the just released, version 1.3.

Offline Package Manager - apt-offline

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:23:13 -0400

//autoplay off Your browser does not support the video tag.

A copy of this article is also available here

This article is about Offline Package Management in Debian. Debian is a pretty well known project. One of the things that makes Debian very popular is APT (a.k.a Advanced Packaging Tool) which allows remote package downloads, upgrades and dependency resolution. Unfortunately it does require a network connection - unless you use apt-offline.

In Debian, when you need to install a package, you usually would fire up the apt-get command and the software would just install without any hand holding.

While APT is really very cool one of the main reasons for its success is the Debian Policy. The Debian Policy is like the brain of the project that controls the entire project ensuring that all the bits and pieces fit well together upto the Debian Standards. APT is just a result of the fantastic Debian Policy work.

In Debian, every package is very well self-contained and is tightly related to each other using APT. APT does a very good job of integrating and resolving dependencies for Package Management and takes off all the Dependency Hell problems from the user.

This is where the problem starts - for a machine which has network access it works very well because APT generates the list of packages and their dependencies and is able to download and install them successfully.

But when it comes to downloading a package individually on a different machine, along wih resolving any dependencies this can be a big problem.

Consider this real world example: I have a Debian box at home. At home, I have no (or very slow/expensive dial-up) internet connection. At work, I (or my friend) do have a very fast connection but (as part of IT policy) am required to use Windows.

I would still like to be able to painlessly update/upgrade my Debian box at home, with all the power and flexibility of APT.

This is where apt-offline is useful. apt-offline is an offline APT Package Manager.

Using apt-offline:

You generate a signature on your Debian box at home and carry the signature file on a removable medium (Probably a USB Stick).(e.g. “apt-offline set /tmp/apt-offline.txt”)
Now you take the USB Stick (with the apt-offline.txt signature file) to the office machine which could be running any linux version, or as I mentioned above, even Windows.
There, you could run apt-offline giving it the signature file. (e.g. “apt-offline get C:\apt-offline.txt”)
apt-offline would generate you an archive file or a folder with all the data. That data can be copied on a removable media. The removable media can be attached back to the disconnected Debian box at home and installed. (e.g. “apt-offline install /tmp/apt-offline.zip”)

Let’s start with a 3 step example

Step 1

Generate a signature file on the Disconnected Debian box at home

apt-offline set /tmp/apt-offline.sig

The above command will generate all information required from apt about updating its database.

By default, with no additional arguments passed, apt-offline will extract information about APT Package Database Update i.e. the --update option as well as the list of Packages to be upgraded i.e. the --upgrade option.

These options can also be individually passed if you want only one of those.

Step 2

Download data based on the signature file generated earlier

apt-offline get C:\apt-offline.sig --threads 5

The above command will download data as mentioned in the signature file. To speed up downloads (that can be from multiple apt repositories), in this example we spawn 5 download threads.

Note: It would be good to also download the bug reports for the packages that you are downloading. So that example now becomes:

apt-offline get C:\apt-offline.sig --bug-reports --threads 5

There are many more options that you can pass to apt-offline, like the --bundle option which would generate for you, an archive file with all the data.

Once completed, you could just copy the data (an archive file, if you used the --bundle option) back to the removable medium and copy it back onto your offline host.

Step 3

Once you’re back upon the home Debian machine, you feed the data from the removable medium to apt-offline:

apt-offline install /media/USB/apt-offline.zip

This will update the APT database on your disconnected machine seamlessly.

If there were packages that needed to be upgraded, now they would all be available (with dependencies) in the APT database. So if you do an apt-get upgrade now, APT won’t prompt you mentioning even a single bye download. APT would find that all required packages are already present in the APT cache.

If you had used the --bug-reports switch that I mentioned earlier, during install apt-offline would prompt you with the list of bug reports related to the packages on your machine that need be upgraded/installed - not just the list but the full bug report will be available for you to look at and evaluate the severity involved.

As you can see from the article above, apt-offline helps you achieve the power of APT, in just 3 steps. apt-offline is part of Debian and is developed at Alioth and Github.

apt-offline 1.1

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:36:50 -0400

I just completed the release of apt-offline version 1.1. This release has many bug fixes, adds basic proxy support and has a new Advanced Options window for the Get operation.

![apt offline advanced options](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/__etqz- yeP4s/TZ7xpWrqyeI/AAAAAAAABUU/fpZV_1oIn74/s640/apt-offline-advanced- options.png)

apt-offline - 1.0

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:55:00 -0500

Hello World.

I am very pleased to announce apt-offline , version 1.0.

This release adds a Graphical User Interace to apt-offline.

Big thanks to Abhishek Mishra and Manish Sinha who did all the development work to make this GUI happen.

Help: I was wondering if there is a logo for APT that I could use in the big blank space on the main window.

Apart from the GUI, there are a bunch of bug fixes in this release (which have already been made available for the Squeeze release also).

I look forward to your feedback and comments on the GUI front.

Note: The GUI in its current form is basic and does not provide all the features that are available in apt-offline.

pypt-offline goodness

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:15:00 -0500

I created pypt-offline with the hope that it’d be useful for people who don’t have an internet connection but would still like to enjoy Debian. Enjoying Debian is about enjoying its Package Manager, APT. I don’t have any data to show if pypt-offline is in use by anybody. I too, use it rarely, when at my hometown. But I hope people who use it, find it useful.

At my hometown, I use internet service from my friend’s ISP. I have a 10kb/s connection at home. That’s slow.

And I’ve been using KDE 4.2 in Debian. The Debian KDE team decided to defer public availability of KDE 4.2 Beta packages for a good reason. But I did want to use it and find more bugs, sooner. So I ended up with the unofficial sources. There, it comes packaged almost every 2 days. That ends up being a 600-700 mb download quite often. (This includes the debug packages).

Being at home and downloading 700 megs of deb is painful. So I rushed to my friend’s ISP. There I can get 500kb/s bandwidth. But apt didn’t want to play good. The problem is that apt is not threaded. So from a single source, only a single download can be initiated. That ended up me using on 120kb/s bandwitdth to download. That was time consuming. I wanted it to be downloaded faster so that I could spend more time at home.

That’s when I thought of using pypt-offline. When I designed pypt-offline, one of my requirements set, was threads. pypt-offline is threaded. This ended up being very helpful for me. I was able to utilize the bandwidht upto 600 kb/s by using 5 threads. This has yielded in faster download for me, while it must be choking the bandwidth for the server

I wish if apt was threaded. But I think it isn’t threaded for good reasons. Having a threaded apt will end up with excess load on Debian servers. But then, if you really want fast downloads and do have the bandwidth, do give pypt-offline a try. And yes, you can try it on Windows/Linux/Mac.

It makes me happy today to see a good use of pypt-offline.

pypt-offline

rrs@researchut.com (Ritesh Raj Sarraf) — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 04:54:00 -0400

My first contribution to FSF. pypt- offline is an offline package manager for Debian and its derivatives.