** IMPORTANT **
mini-dinstall has some error checking, but it is not perfect.
If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.
** IMPORTANT **

First, you should probably set up a ~/.mini-dinstall.conf (or
/etc/mini-dinstall.conf), but it's not strictly necessary; the
defaults may suit you.  Try copying the example file.  If you do copy
the example file, be sure to change the "mail_to" variable.

mini-dinstall can be run either as a daemon (the default), or via
cron.  

To run mini-dinstall as a daemon, just type: mini-dinstall
It will automatically create any directories necessary.  You should
have set up a ~/.mini-dinstall.conf first.

To run via cron: mini-dinstall --batch
Running from cron is less than ideal.  Currently there is no support
for rejecting stale uploads; plus, it's less efficient.

You may find it useful to run with --no-act at first, to see what is
going to happen without making any changes.

The archive layout is not (yet) configurable.  It consists of separate
distribution directories (the defaults are "sid" and "woody"), and
then architecture-specific subdirectories (the defaults are "all",
"i386", "sparc", and "powerpc").

Here's what an example apt line looks like:

deb http://monk.debian.net/~walters/debian/ local/$(ARCH)/
deb http://monk.debian.net/~walters/debian/ local/all/
deb-src http://monk.debian.net/~walters/debian/ local/source/

In general, this should look like:

deb <URI prefix>/<mini-dinstall directory>/ <respository>/$(ARCH)/
deb <URI prefix>/<mini-dinstall directory>/ <respository>/all/
deb-src <URI prefix>/<mini-dinstall directory>/ <respository>/source/

mini-dinstall will pick up on any upload (i.e. .changes) you stick in
an archive directory, and install the file.  It will automatically
remove older versions of the package files, with one exception: if
there are both binaries and source for a particular version, and
you're installing a newer version .changes with source and binaries
for a different arch, the old source will not be removed.

That's it for now...enjoy!

-- Colin Walters <walters@debian.org> Tue, 13 Aug 2002 15:35:09 -0400