On Sun 19 Mar 2017 at 08:50:55 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote: > On 03/19/2017 08:08 AM, David Wright wrote: > >[snip ;] > > > >How's the other research coming along? > >Did you see if there were files whose timestamps change? > >Did you see whether you can find the files which are apparently > >indexed in /var/lib/apt/cdroms.list? > >And if/when you find them, what are you going to use them for, > >in view of your new philosophy of working from the DVDs anyway? > > It's not new. People just assumed that I would do things a certain > way because that would be the way they would do it. > I put effort into asking narrowly focused questions.
And I put effort into answering it as best I could. The first answer to the thread may well be correct, but you don't appear to have looked to see if it was correct. I suggested /var/lib as another possibility, partly because I think it would be easier to eliminate. All the files in my /var/lib/apt are plain text, so it would be hard to hide the information from scanned CDs. OTOH /var/cache/apt contains a couple of .bin files which have package names in them. Not having CDs to scan, I can't test the file timestamp idea. If they changed, it would suggest Jonathan was correct, but be trickier to prove. Hence checking, and possibly eliminating, /var/lib. Also there's the point that those .bin files may contain more than just some CD indexes, so sharing them between different systems would be high-risk. So you haven't answered Jonathan's suggestion nor mine. Instead, just some of the usual vague waffle about reading lists, and complaints that the answers aren't good enough for you. I wrote to you privately in 2015 about this. Curt has just written "it's obvious Dick Owlett is crowdsourcing his retirement", but I think that ignores the fact that crowdsourcing should involve reciprocal benefits. > Many, in > effect, say "Owlett can't mean ..." and proceed to answer "The > question Owlett should have asked is ' ...? ' " ;} > That's a legitimate course of action. In many cases, those answers could be of use to many people reading this list, particularly in view of the self-confessed statement that you take "the road less traveled". > >Or is it the 13 bookmarks added to your reading list that's the > >only important thing? > > For now. Those links provide the resources I need to answer a > broader set of questions that this thread is just the tip of a > proverbial iceberg. As usual. > The subject line is my question. > Perhaps my original post gave too much information and should have > been replaced by a single line quoting the subject line. > > Perhaps the Subject/Body could have been phrased as > "Where is what data stored when Synaptic scans DVDs?" > > Those 13 bookmarks will begin to answer that question. I'm pessimistic about your making much progress with this methodology. man apt-cdrom IMO is trying to put people off from taking a simplistic approach, and the lack of documentation of the whereabouts of the information is probably significant too. But your reticence about revealing what you end up trying has consequences. As I said, copying the DVDs was discussed many months ago. "That has gone thru several variations, some mutually inconsistent" is a response that's about par for the course. I for one have lost interest. Cheers, David.
