Is there a way to create a local package repository

Question

Is there a way to create a local package repository without technically being a mirror.  For example, setting up multiple AL box's on my network and having them grab all the latest packages from one AL box?
Thanks,
Craig

Answer 1

What you most likely want is an ABS tree of your own, containing only the PKGBUILDs of those packages which you want to be included in your repository.
You should already have heard of the gensync program. In short, the parameters are the root of PKGBUILDs, sorted in subdirectories (ie. like the ABS tree), the intented name and location of the repository database file, and the directory containing the binary packages.
Let's assume you downloaded the current ABS tree to your hard drive, as well as all matching (same version as in the PKGBUILDs!) packages from a mirror, but you don't want the reiserfsprogs package in your repository. To achieve that, you must remove the /var/abs/base/reiserfsprogs directory, and may optionally remove the binary package, too. Since gensync analyzes the ABS tree you supplied as a parameter, removing the subdirectory of a specific package will cause this very package to not be included in the generated database. Assuming your packages lie in /home/arch/i686/current, your gensync call would look like this:
gensync /var/abs /home/arch/i686/current/current.db.tar.gz /home/arch/i686/current
If there are any discrepancies like
  - PKGBUILD, but no matching binary package found
  - PKGBUILD and binary package versions do not match
  - permission problems (writing the db file must be possible)
gensync will gladly complain.
Otherwise you should find the db file in the place you specified. Keep in mind that the name of the db.tar.gz file must be equal to the repository tag in the pacman.conf to use the repo.
To make sure the db contains the right packages; use
tar -tzf current.db.tar.gz | less
to list the contents. Every package has it's own subdirectory including the metadata, which is rather obvious considering the file's generated from such a structure in the first place.
The binary packages along with a correctly generated db file are all you need. Make the repository directory containing these files available through FTP if local availability doesn't cut it for you, edit your pacman.conf if needed, and use it!
Adding packages works similar; All you need to have is the PKGBUILD in an ABS-like tree (it doesn't have to be the official tree; gensync doesn't care where the files come from. Just stick to one subdirectory per PKGBUILD, and you'll be fine), and the matching packages somewhere else, run gensync with the appropriate directories, and cackle with glee.
HTH.