Documentation

Manuals

Documentation about distsync see here, about dsc2man see here or about distributions.list see here.

If a script is run without any parameter a small help is displayed.


FAQ

This FAQ tries to answers any common misunderstandings:

Q: Why does distsync use uncompressed control files instead of compressed ones?
A: With rsync, it's at least 10 times better to download the uncompressed files than the compressed ones.

Q: Is it possible to synchronize only the current packages?
A: The -A option limits the download to only the currently installed packages.

Q: Why doesn't the -U options handle Debian utilities (i.e. disk images, docs)?
A: Simply because Debian doesn't currently provide a control file for utilities. Since distsync needs a control file it's currently only able to handle Packages and Sources from Debian.

Q: Can distsync be used to build a complete mirror for one architecture?
A: Yes and No! Distsync could build complete mirrors for any or all architectures if a distribution provides the necessary control files.

Q: Is it possible to build my own utilities control files?
A: Ahh, yes. But it's not that easy and not the right solution for this problem.

Q: Why introduces distsync another distributions list file?
A: The "sources.list" of apt isn't able to handle everything which distsync needs. Besides "sources.list" makes rather heavy restrictions on the location and naming of the distribution while the new structure lifts any.