Downloading the TCE repository

[enobayram]

Dear Tinycore people, first of all thank you very much for the pure awesomeness that is tinycore!

I've looking around to figure out a way to download the entire TCE x86 repository, but I couldn't find anything. So I'm coming to the conclusion that the only way is to wget the repository. Is this a polite way of doing it? How large is the entire repo? Do you have more constructive alternatives like torrent that I can keep seeding for generations to come after I've downloaded myself?

Thanks again, your core may be tiny, but your hearts are huge

[Rich]

Hi enobayram
You can't possibly need every extension in the repository.

How large is the entire repo?

I think it's somewhere around 10-12 Gigabytes.
If you insist on downloading the entire repository, please consider spreading the load out among the mirrors.

[enobayram]

Hi Rich, thank you for your answer. I agree that it's very unlikely for me to need all the extensions, but I wouldn't know which ones to pick... Especially considering that I need to pick the dependencies too. Do you have any suggestions about how I would do that (construct a repo containing only what I need)? Can I boot a vanilla iso, install all the packages I need, copy all the .tcz files from the download folder and arrange them in my local server in a way similar to the public repos?

[Lee]

I put together a script to implement the following while I was using 4.x but installing the alphas and the rc for 5.x.  Since I was pulling from a different repo (5.x vs 4.x) and installing to a different tce directory than what I had booted with, it seemed easier than trying to use tce-load to do the dirty work (and it was a fun scripting exercise).


1. from the main repo, wget info.list which is a simple text file listing the available extensions, one per line.
2.  make a list of the extensions that interest you

3. for each of those extensions, download the extension and its .dep file, if any
4. combine those .dep files into one big master .dep, then run it through sort and uniq
5. eliminate from the master .dep file any listed dependencies that are already present
6. download any dependency extensions still listed in the master .dep file.

7. repeat steps 3 through 6 until there are no more dependencies to get

While I'm at it I grab the .md5.txt files, and usually the .info, .list and .tree


If you're pulling a large fraction of the repo, spread out the downloads over several mirrors or throw in some sleeps to spread them out over time.

If you've booted from 5.0 (which I suppose you have) and you want the extensions in your working tce directory (which I suppose you do), you can just make a list of extensions that interest you, tce-load -w each of them or even use the apps tool since it has the advantage of providing easy access to the .info files - without the .info files (and sometimes even -with- them) it is not always clear to me what each extension is.

[Rich]

Hi enobayram

Can I boot a vanilla iso, install all the packages I need, copy all the .tcz files from the download folder and arrange them in my local server in a way similar to the public repos?

Yes you can. By installing using the Apps utility all dependencies will be resolved. You can then point the Apps utility
to your own repository. You will probably also want the .info, .list, etc. files. There is a script here:
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,14673.msg83384.html#msg83384
That will retrieve the .info files for any extensions you have installed. You can modify it to also fetch .list, .tree, etc.

[Rich]

Hi Lee

While I'm at it I grab the .md5.txt files, and usually the .info, .list and .tree

What, no zsync files?

[Lee]

Yes, I download "everything but zee kitchen sync" 

I'm not really clear about the purpose of the zsync files.  Don't they serve some server side purpose during incremental syncing of mirors?

[Rich]

Hi Lee
I thought the Apps utility used it to check for updates.