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diff --git a/content/devops/approx_to_acng.rst b/content/devops/approx_to_acng.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b517a20 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/devops/approx_to_acng.rst @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +Switching from approx to apt-cacher-ng +###################################### + +:date: 2016-07-17 16:30 +0530 +:slug: approx_to_acng +:tags: apt, approx, apt-cacher-ng, debian +:author: copyninja +:summary: Brief notes on my switch from approx to apt-cacher-ng + +After a long ~5 years (from 2011) journey with approx I finally wanted +to switch to something new like apt-cacher-ng. And after a bit of +changes I finally managed to get apt-cacher-ng into my work flow. + +Bit of History +============== + +I should first give you a brief on how I started using approx. It all +started in MiniDebconf 2011 which I organized at my Alma-mater. I met +Jonas Smedegaard here and from him I learned about approx. Jonas has a +bunch of machines at his home and he was active user of approx and he +showed it to me while explaining the *Boxer* project. I was quite +impressed with approx. Back then I was using a 230kbps slow INTERNET +connection and I was also maintaining a couple of packages in +Debian. Updating the pbuilder chroots was time consuming task for me +as I had to download multiple times over slow net. And approx largely +solved this problem and I started using it. + +5 years fast forward I now have quite fast INTERNET with good +FUP. (About 50GB a month), but I still tend to use approx which makes +building packages quite faster. I also use couple of containers on my +laptop which all use my laptop as approx cache. + +Why switch? +=========== + +So why change to apt-cacher-ng?. Approx is a simple tool, it runs +mainly with inetd and sits between apt and the repository on +INTERNET. Where as apt-cacher-ng provides a lot of features. Below are +some listed from the apt-cacher-ng manual. + +* use of TLS/SSL repositories (may be possible with approx but I'm notsure how to do it) +* Access control of who can access caching server +* Integration with debdelta (I've not tried) +* Avoiding use of apt-cacher-ng for some hosts +* Avoiding caching of some file types +* Partial mirroring for offline usage. +* Selection of ipv4 or ipv6 for connections. + +The biggest change I see is the speed difference between approx and +apt-cacher-ng. I think this is mainly because apt-cacher-ng is threaded where as approx +runs using inetd. + +I do not want all features of apt-cacher-ng at the moment, but who knows in +future I might need some features and hence I decided to switch to +apt-cacher-ng over approx. + +Transition +========== + +Transition from approx to apt-cacher-ng was smoother than I +expected. I had to change my /etc/apt/sources.list to use the actual +repository URL. + +.. code-block:: sources.list + + deb http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free + deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable main + + deb http://deb.debian.org/debian experimental main contrib non-free + deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian experimental main + + +I had to add a *01proxy* configuration file to */etc/apt/apt.conf.d/* +with following content. + +.. code-block:: conf + + Acquire::http::Proxy "http://localhost:3142/" + +And thats it apt will transparently use apt-cacher-ng as caching proxy +server. It is also possible to specify proxy in the sources.list +directly in below format + +.. code-block:: sources.list + + deb http://localhost:3142/deb.debian.org/debian unstable main + +But it looks ugly to me so I preferred the transparent proxy approach. + +Usage with pbuilder and friends +------------------------------- + +To use apt-cacher-ng with pbuilder you need to modify /etc/pbuilderrc +to contain following line + +.. code-block:: sh + + MIRRORSITE=http://localhost:3142/deb.debian.org/debian + + +Usage with debootstrap +---------------------- + +To use apt-cacher-ng with debootstrap, pass MIRROR argument of +debootstrap as `http://localhost:3142/deb.debian.org/debian`. + + +Conclusion +========== + +I've now completed full transition of my work flow to apt-cacher-ng +and purged approx and its cache. + +Though it works fine I feel that there will be 2 caches created when +you use transparent and explicit proxy using localhost:3142 URL. I'm +sure it is possible to configure this to avoid duplication, but I've +not yet figured it. If you know how to fix this do let me know. |