README

multipkg
--------

multipkg is a Python script, using the Twisted framework, that helps share an
Arch Linux/pacman package cache on a LAN. It is meant to be as KISS and low
configuration as possible, and uses UDP multicast searches to accomplish this.
The code is available under a BSD license.

Note that the only use of this so far has been for my personal use. Thus, there
are no command line configuration flags, and little else to make this generally
useful. I have made it public to gauge interest and see if anyone else is
interested in helping make this generally useful.

Instructions:
* Ensure you have 'twisted' installed.
* Run ./multipkg.py (it doesn't daemonize...yet).
* Add http://localhost:8954/search/$repo/os/$arch as your first mirror in either
  pacman.conf or your mirrorlist.
* Run ./multipkg.py on any additional computers in your LAN that should share
  their package cache.
* Run pacman as normal- you may see several "file not found" errors, but this
  is normal. If a file is available anywhere on your local multicast network,
  it will be retrieved.

Important Note:
This uses multicast. Thus, if your network segments are routed and not bridged,
multicast traffic will likely not cross the barrier. A good example of this is
your wireless/wired components of your home network- depending on your setup
this script may or may not work.

TODO:
* Make port configurable
* Make multicast address configurable
* Allow for some manual endpoint configuration to be routable across subnets
* Auto-detect CacheDirs rather than use hard-coded lists
* Simplify the code as much as possible