# A tool to create a custom FreeBSD Package Repository for OFFLINE USE



## fossette (Jan 20, 2019)

As some may know, I really hate having to deal with updates when I have other stuff to take care of.  It's especially frustrating since I'm pretty much isolated from threats from the net, and I have decent backups to recover from if need be.  Thanks to this article:
Thread guide-building-a-package-repository-with-portmaster.68179
I've develop a simple tool called `pkgcache` that gives all the power to the user as to when the package updates will occur.  It basically manages a list of packages to download automatically, that is, on your command.  A big economic plus is providing a way to greatly reduce the download bandwidth with the OFFLINE package installation/update feature made possible by `pkgcache`.  Interested to add a new package to the local package repository? No problem because the dependencies will also be automatically added to the list.  For example, download can be performed on a speedy network, then files (packages) transferred to the local repository hosted on a local website. I know that there's even a way to have the local repository as files like the FreeBSD DVD, but I haven't researched for that syntax.  The `pkg` command can then be used as usual.

The source code and further details about `pkgcache` can be found here:
https://github.com/fossette/pkgcache

Enjoy!


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## Bobi B. (Jan 20, 2019)

Perhaps pkg-fetch(8) with `-d` switch would help here? Then transfer /var/cache/pkg to the off-grid machine.

Not sure about freebsd-update(8) tho.


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