Pacman Backup

Offline Pacman Cache management tool that allows off-the-grid updates via sneakernet (usb drives) or mesh Wi-Fi networks.

Share Updates via USB Drive

In the below example, make sure that usb-drive is writable. Replace the path with the correct one that points to your mounted USB drive.

Step 1: On the machine with internet connection, insert and mount the USB drive.

# Machine with internet connection
pacman-backup download /run/media/$USER/usb-drive;
pacman-backup cleanup /run/media/$USER/usb-drive;
sync;

# Unmount the USB drive and sneak/walk to other machine

Step 2: On the machine without internet connection, insert and mount the USB drive.

# Machine without internet connection
pacman-backup upgrade /run/media/$USER/usb-drive;

Share Updates via Wi-Fi Mesh Network

In the below example, the machine with internet connection has the IP 192.168.0.10. Replace the IP with the correct one that matches your setup. If in doubt, use ip or ifconfig.

Step 1: On the machine with internet connection, download all updates and serve them as local pacman archive mirror.

# Machine with internet connection
sudo pacman-backup download;
pacman-backup serve;

Step 2: On the machine without direct internet connection, download updates from the local pacman archive mirror.

# Machine without internet connection
sudo pacman-backup download http://192.168.0.10:15678/;
sudo pacman-backup upgrade;

Manual Export and Import of Database Files and Package Cache

If you don't trust automated upgrades and want to use pacman directly, that's fine. You can do so by using export on the machine with internet connection and import on the machine without internet connection.

# Machine with internet connection
sudo pacman -Syuw;
pacman-backup export /run/media/$USER/usb-drive;
sync;

# Unmount the USB drive and sneak/walk to other machine

# Machine without internet connection
sudo pacman-backup import /run/media/$USER/usb-drive;
sync;

sudo pacman -Su;

License

GPL3