APT-CACHER Server on Ubuntu

I've been playing this some time ago to ease bandwidth updates on ubuntu platform. Hope this maybe helpful on building your own apt.
Server Installation

1. Install apt-cacher and apache2 webserver
sudo apt-get install apt-cacher apache2

2. Enable apt-cacher
Edit /etc/default/apt-cacher and change autostart to 1

Note: I had problems doing this on a machine with apache already installed.

Added by JT: Restart apache if you already had it installed: sudo invoke-rc.d apache2 restart

Added by pablodav: I suggest to restart apt-cacher also: sudo invoke-rc.d apt-cacher restart

Then test by going to http://server/apt-cacher to verify that it's running. Added by pablodav: In Jaunty use http://server:3142 instead http://server/apt-cacher (this seems to be not working anymore with /apt-cacher).

Server Configuration

Edit /etc/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.conf if you want to change any options. The only one I changed was admin_email.

Import any existing apt-get cache:

• sudo /usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher-import.pl /var/cache/apt/archives

Added by pablodav: I strongly recommend to use -d option for symlinks, In Jaunty I had to use sudo /usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher-import.pl -s /var/cache/apt/archives

Load Packages on Server from CD

Around upgrade time, you may find it useful to get the CD image instead of using the slow update servers, and populate your cache using that.

First, download your CD image(s) of choice (I'd recommend using bit-torrent).

Second, mount the CD image on the server running apt-cacher :

sudo mount -o loop /home/username_or_other_path/ubuntu-9.10-rc-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom0

Third, run the import on the CD image, you need the -R is needed to recurse into the CD directory structure, the -r just makes sure they are copied to the cache instead of trying to link:

sudo /usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher-import.pl -R -r /media/cdrom0

You should see the script saying that it is importing a lot of packages.

Client Configuration Options

There are two ways to configure your clients to use apt-cacher. Added by pablodav: I don't recommend to change every line with step 1. In Jaunty /apt-cache does not works. Jump to step 2 for Client Configuration.

Modify your sources.list

In client /etc/apt/sources.list insert apt-cacher-server/apt-cacher/ in each line, ie

• deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted

becomes

• deb http://apt-cacher-server/apt-cacher/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted

(Warning: The apt-cacher web page advises to also add ':3142' - this caused the system to fail for me)

Added by JT: on gutsy and hardy, I could not get this to work with server/apt-cacher/ but server:3142/ (NB: without the /apt-cacher/) worked fine. To clarify, use eg. deb http://apt-cacher-server:3142/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted

Scientus: I think this is because apt-cacher is its own http server and this setup use apache

Then run

• apt-get update

Use as a proxy to APT

Static configuration

In a terminal, type:

sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01proxy

Inside your new file, add a line that says:

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://<IP address or hostname of the apt-cacher server>:3142";

"Roaming" mode

This method is useful if you are alternating between office and home with a laptop for example. It involves using the ping command to determine if the apt-cacher server is available at boot-time and then configure the APT proxy or not.

• Open /etc/rc.local (alt-F2, "gksu gedit /etc/rc.local")
• Change the top from "#!/bin/sh -e" to "#!/bin/bash"
• put this near the end (before "exit 0" if present) replacing "SERVER_NAME_HERE" with your server's resolvable name or it's IP:

. /lib/lsb/init-functions
log_daemon_msg "Configuring APT cache proxy" "(based on SERVER_NAME_HERE's presence...)"
ping -c 1 SERVER_NAME_HERE &> /dev/null
if [ $? = "0" ]; then
  echo "Acquire::http::Proxy \"http://SERVER_NAME_HERE:3142\";" > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01SERVER_NAME_HEREproxy
else
  rm /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01SERVER_NAME_HEREproxy &> /dev/null
fi
log_end_msg 0

"Roaming" mode alternative solution

Added by "nuaimat": The above method didn't work for me, so I created two sources.list versions, one named sources.list.home and other one named sources.list.work (both inside /etc/apt) I modified sources.list.home as mentioned above (Static configuration Section) then I login as root

   sudo su -

then created a shell script (don't forget to replace "SERVER_NAME_HERE" with your server's resolvable name or it's IP ) :

. /lib/lsb/init-functions
log_daemon_msg "Configuring APT cache proxy" "(based on SERVER_NAME_HERE's presence...)"
unlink /etc/apt/sources.list

ping -c 1 SERVER_NAME_HERE &> /dev/null
if [ $? = "0" ]; then
 log_daemon_msg "found live $?"
 ln -s /etc/apt/sources.list.home /etc/apt/sources.list &> /dev/null

  for i in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list; 
  do 
  local_online=`grep "SERVER_NAME_HERE" $i|wc -l`
  if [ $local_online = "0" ]; then
   sed -i 's|http://|http://SERVER_NAME_HERE/apt-cacher/|g' $i &> /dev/null
  fi;
 done;
else

 log_daemon_msg "not found"
 ln -s /etc/apt/sources.list.work /etc/apt/sources.list &> /dev/null
 
 for i in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list; 
 do 
  sed -i 's|http://SERVER_NAME_HERE/apt-cacher/|http://|g' $i &> /dev/null
 done;
fi


  


log_end_msg 0

• save it as /root/check-apt-cacher
• chmod +x /root/check-apt-cacher
• crontab -e
• using your favourite editor add the following line to the crontabs

*/1 * * * * /bin/bash /root/check-apt-cacher

this script will run each minute (*/1) you can change it as you see fit.

Referenced: 
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Apt-Cacher-Server