Re^4: Building a local 'ppm' repository (Windows)

[LittleGreyCat]

Why? Perhaps why not?

As to why I want a full repository - I don't know what I will want or what dependecies this will have. Shuttling back across the air-gap each time I find I need something could become a major pain. Better to get the whole set at once.

At first glance, sorting through the ZIP archives to get only the latest version seems nearly as much work as getting all the versions. Also, if all versions are available in the online repository there may be a reason - or not - but it seems wiser to match the online repository as closely as possible.

Now I have built my offline 'ppm' repository it seems to work fine; I haven't needed a SOAP server or anything else.
I just tell 'ppm' about the repository, disable the online repositories, and 'ppm' searches the local disc copy.
First time through the search is slow, but 'ppm' seems to cache an index and subsequent searches are fast.

So now I have CDs with a 'ppm' repository that I can distribute locally so that anyone working with ActiveState Perl on Windows just has to insert the CD and tell 'ppm' where to look.

To me this seems an obvious solution to my 'air gap' problem, and easy to use once set up.

I guess I am now bitching because I think it could and should have been much easier

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.
Dave R.