Questions[localrepository](ubuntu)

What do I want to do?

You can have
deb [trusted=yes] http://pathtoserver/ubuntu bionic main
deb [arch=amd64] http://pathtoserver/ubuntu bionic main

in sources.list separately.

Is there a way I can do
deb [trusted=yes, arch=amd64] http://pathtoserver/ubuntu bionic main or something like that where I can have only amd64 as options and trusted should be yes. in Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic.

Error

If I use the following deb line
deb [arch=amd64 trusted=yes] http://pathtoserver/ubuntu bionic main

E: Conflicting values set for option Trusted regarding source
E: The list of sources could not be read.

This is an airgapped system and I have mirrored the ubuntu repository for offline purpose.

Summary

How can I make apt-get prefer local repository packages instead of downloading again the same package version from official repositories? The local repository is signed and trusted. We've already tried apt preferences priority.

Original question was : "How to assign highest priority to local repository without using sources.list file"

I have setup a local repository with packages I downloaded. I use it to avoid downloading the same packages over the Internet, when I need to reinstall my Ubuntu. It is a basic repository, created with apt-ftparchive packages . > Packages. I made this a trusted repository to avoid "unauthenticated repository" warning. (When you have a untrusted repository, apt or synaptic try to download the same packages over the Internet, 'cause it is trusted).

I have been using this local repository for at least 1 years. But I have to always put my local repository line at the top of the sources.list file to use this. But this is annoying, since I must open a terminal and do some typing on it every time I reinstall Ubuntu, though there is a better tool software-properties-gtk. I cannot use this tool since it place the source line at the end of `sources.list.

And the real problem is that, the apt or synaptic always download a package from the source which is mentioned earlier, without inspecting whether the packages are already available in the local repository. So, I have no choice but to place the local source at the top of sources.list doing terminal (I actually don't hate terminal, but I need a solution) .

I have tried this method. But this does not help me.

My preference file is this in /etc/apt/preferences.d/local-pin-900

    Package: *
    Pin: release o=Local,n=ubuntu-local
    Pin-Priority: 900

My release file is this

    Origin: Local
    Label: Local-Ubuntu
    Description: Local Ubuntu Repository
    Codename: ubuntu-local
    MD5Sum:
     ed43222856d18f389c637ac3d7dd6f85          1043412 Packages
     d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e                0 Sources

When I enable the apt-preference, the apt-cache policy correctly shows the preference, e.g. It shows the local repository has the highest priority.

But when I do this sudo apt-get install <package-name>, apt tries to download it from Internet. But when I place my local-repo at the top, it installs from local repository.

So, My question is -> 'Is it possible to force apt to use local repository when the package is available in local repository, without explicitly placing "the local source" at the top of my repository list (e.g sources.list file) ?'

Edit: output of apt-cache policy $package_name is as follows

  
nautilus-wipe:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.1.1-2
  Version table:
     0.1.1-2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe i386 Packages
        900 file:/media/Main/Linux-Software/Ubuntu/Precise/  Packages

It is showing that my local repository has higher preference, though it is not the one which comes first in sources.list file.

Here is the output of apt-get install nautilus-wipe

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  nautilus-wipe
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 131 not upgraded.
Need to get 30.7 kB of archives.
After this operation, 150 kB of additional disk space will be used.
'http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/n/nautilus-wipe/nautilus-wipe_0.1.1-2_i386.deb' nautilus-wipe_0.1.1-2_i386.deb 30730 MD5Sum:7d497b8dfcefe1c0b51a45f3b0466994

It is still trying to get the file from Internet, though I think it should be happy with the local one.

Result of using "" or localhost as mediageek suggested

Using localhost has no effect. but "" has but was not different than my method

    Package: *
    Pin: origin ""
    Pin-Priority: 1001

I have used them before posting the question. But again i tried this (for surity). The same result. apt-cache policy showing that my local repository has indeed the highest priority. but when i tried to install it is saying "Need to get XXX/XXX KB of archive".

I would like to cleanup my local repository after each upgrade. When I add newer version of packages to pool and regenerate indexes with dpkg-scanpackages, program warns about old versions of packages (in case -m option is not passed):

dpkg-scanpackages: warning: Package php5-common (filename pool/local/php5-common_5.3.6-13ubuntu3.3_amd64.deb) is repeat but newer version;
dpkg-scanpackages: warning: used that one and ignored data from pool/local/php5-common_5.3.6-13ubuntu3.2_amd64.deb!

I'm looking for an automated way to safely remove old packages from disk. I'll call such a script safe if it do not delete an old package if a newer version is available and removing old version will cause an unmet dependency in local repository

I have all images of Debian, Ubuntu and Ubuntustudio as .iso. How can I use them as repository to install my desired packages with sudo apt-get install package-name?

I easily mount the .iso file with Archive Mounter, but when adding CD-ROM in Software Sources it says Please Insert CD-ROM.

How should I do this without burning them to disk?

I copied "archives" folder (/var/cache/apt/archives) from another computer which was fully updated and had some packages that i want. Can someone guide me how to add my USB drive in repository list so that i can install those packages from it?

Thanks.