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Date:      Fri, 28 Apr 2000 22:42:29 -0400
From:      "Crist J. Clark" <cjc@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com>
To:        Shawn Barnhart <swb@grasslake.net>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Local FTP install & local cvs?
Message-ID:  <20000428224229.B25309@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004282020000.47666-100000@accord.grasslake.net>; from swb@grasslake.net on Fri, Apr 28, 2000 at 08:25:58PM -0500
References:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004282020000.47666-100000@accord.grasslake.net>

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On Fri, Apr 28, 2000 at 08:25:58PM -0500, Shawn Barnhart wrote:
> Is it possible to setup a local mirror for ftp-based installs of FreeBSD? 
> For locally-sourced cvsup's?

Yes.

> I can see installing FreeBSD enough times in the near future that it would
> be nice to be able to use the standard install floppy set but source the files
> off of a local ftp server, both to speed installation and to take a load of
> my uplink and the public servers.
> 
> The same holds true, only more so, for cvs updates.  It seems like it would
> make more sense to keep a master copy on one machine and then let the other
> machines get their upgrades from it.
> 
> I suppose the question isn't "possible" but "are there any docs on how to do
> this?"

We are really talking about two separate things here.

  1) You want a local ftp mirror of installation (i.e. ready to
     install, release) data.

  2) You want a local source tree to be shared among machines.

The standard install floppies download compiled and archived code in
the from the x.x-RELEASE directories on the FreeBSD ftp sites. They do
not download from "source." The easiest way to have a local
release ready for installation from floppy over ftp is to take a
FreeBSD CDROM, mount it on a machine, and make the CD accessible over
ftp. If you don't have the CDROM, download a full copy of the
x.x-RELEASE tree from a ftp site. And if you _really_ want to be cool,
build from source and make your own release locally.

I have done this on a case-by-case basis. I had the CD. I had a
machine I wanted to install on without a CDROM that could be accessed
via boot floppy. I had other FreeBSD machines. I mounted floppy,
quickly configured the ftp access, and I installed without problems.

I also have one machine dedicated to serving source (2.2.8, 3.4, 4.0,
and PAO) and the ports tree for the others (I have about 6 FreeBSD
machines at the location). This is easy. Just CVSup on the server as
instructed in the many guides and examples and just make the tree NFS
mountable. The same goes for allowing access to an obj-tree over NFS.

I am not aware of any cookbook docs for doing these two things in one
place. The hardest part about setting up the ftp installs is getting
the ftp serving configured. There are many docs about that, see
ftpd(8) for a start. Getting the source served has two parts: (1)
getting CVSup going and (2) setting up the NFS. Each is documented in
the Handbook and in manpages in several places.

I hope this can get you started. Feel free to ask more specific
questions if you get caught somewhere. 
-- 
Crist J. Clark                           cjclark@home.com


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