Mail: richard ätt 2008.atterer.net
Last change: 2008-02-08

This is the Debian Jigdo mini-HOWTO, written by Peter Jay Salzman. Many thanks to Peter for his work! This copy of the HOWTO may be outdated - check Peter's pages for the latest version and for translations into other languages.

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Debian Jigdo mini-HOWTO

Peter Jay Salzman

<p@dirac.orgZZZ>

2005-12-05 ver 1.8

Abstract

Getting Debian ISOs has always been a painful, slow and supremely inefficient process. Jigdo is a tool for distributing and obtaining Debian ISOs in an easy, fast and very efficient manner. This HOWTO describes why you should use jigdo, a little bit about how it works and how you use it to get and update Debian ISOs.

Jigdo is a very general tool, and isn't tied specifically to Debian ISOs. The jigdo tools can be used to make any ISO available for download in the same easy, fast and efficient manner they're used for Debian ISOs. This HOWTO will cover this as well, but we'll focus primarily on downloading Debian ISOs.

Table of Contents

1. Administrata

1.1. Authorship and Copyright
1.2. Acknowledgements
1.3. Comments and Corrections
1.4. Latest Version And Translations

2. Why jigdo?

2.1. How Does One Get A Debian ISO Image Set?
2.2. Why Not Download The Whole ISO Image?
2.3. What Is Jigdo?

3. How Jigdo Works (optional)

3.1. Preparing The ISO For Download
3.2. The .template File
3.3. The .jigdo File
3.4. Downloading The Image

4. Downloading Your First Image (In 5 Easy Steps)

4.1. Install Jigdo
4.2. Download The .template And .jigdo Files
4.3. Run jigdo-lite
4.4. Specify A Mirror
4.5. Downloading Of The ISO

5. Updating Your Image

6. Frequently Asked Questions

6.1. Why does jidgo ask twice for scanning for existing files? Is it enough to say yes once ?
6.2. Jigdo Has Problems Downloading Certain Filenames.
6.3. How do I make jigdo use my proxy?
6.4. Jigdo-lite fails with an error - have I downloaded all those MBs in vain?
6.5. [11 Aug 2002]: Why aren't the translations of this HOWTO on LDP?
6.6. What do I do if my jigdo download gets interrupted?
6.7. My jigdo download won't complete because the .jigdo file is broken. When I download a new, fixed .jigdo file, do I need to download all the data over again?
6.8. Can I use jigdo to download images for DVD?
6.9. Can I burn the .iso.tmp file to CD?
6.10. Jigdo-lite is broken! It downloads packages and deletes them. I know it doesn't write them to the iso.tmp file because the file size doesn't change!
6.11. I'm having trouble getting jigdo-easy to work.
6.12. For image updates, I want jigdo-lite to scan 14 loop-mounted images in one go. How can I do this?
6.13. Jigdo-lite is too verbose. How can I supress some or all of its messages?
6.14. Can I use jigdo on platforms other than Linux?
6.15. On MS Windows, why do I get a "No such file or directory" error message?
6.16. On MS Windows, why won't my image grow larger than 2GB?
6.17. On MS Windows, jigdo-lite.bat fails with an error message saying "sh" was not found.
6.18. Can I run multiple instances of jigdo-lite to download images in parallel?
6.19. Is there a GUI interface available?

7. Errata

7.1. jigdo-easy
7.2. More About Scan Sources
7.3. jigdo-file-cache.db
7.4. Resources

1. Administrata

1.1. Authorship and Copyright

This document is copyright (c) 2001 Peter Jay Salzman, <p@dirac.orgZZZ>. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the Open Software License (OSL), version 1.1. I hate HOWTO's that include the license; it's a tree killer. You can read the OSL at http://opensource.org/licenses/osl-1.1.txt.

If you want to create a derivative work or publish this HOWTO for commercial purposes, I'd appreciate it if you contact me first. This will give me a chance to give you the most recent version. I'd also appreciate either a copy of whatever it is you're doing or a spinach, garlic, mushroom, feta cheese and artichoke heart pizza.

1.2. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the author of jigdo, Richard Atterer, simply for writing jigdo. Anyone who has obtained Debian ISOs by other means will know why. This HOWTO started out as some webpages I wrote about my experience with jigdo. Richard took the time to email me extensive corrections, clarifications and answers to questions I had about jigdo. Since then, he has read my work many times. Richard is a developer who not only cares about his work, but also about the people who use it. Sadly, this is becoming less common in this busy world we live in. Thanks, Richard!

I'd also like to thank Conrad Wood, Elcio Mello, Marcelo Ramos, Yufeng Wang, Tsukasa Yamaguchi, Yuri Kozlov, and Oguz Yarimtepe for translating this mini-HOWTO into languages other than English. I feel totally honored that they have found my words worthy of their time and effort. Thanks, guys!

Lastly, I'd like to thank Mark van Lent, Gordon Huff, David Anselmi, Thierry Cabuzel, Russell L. Harris, and Jens Seidel for kind words and corrections.

1.3. Comments and Corrections

I care a great deal about the people who use this document. Even mini-HOWTOs take a long time to write, and I wouldn't have invested so much effort into something people don't understand. If you have comments, corrections or suggestions, even in matters like writing style, don't hesitate to email me. As long as I'm not totally swamped by my PhD dissertation and the book I'm writing on debugging code with GDB/DDD for No Starch Press, I'll do my best to respond to each email I receive about this mini-HOWTO. News flash: I've completed my Ph.D.; now I'm swamped with job hunting. Does anyone need to hire a theoretical physicist?

1.4. Latest Version And Translations

German:: Conrad Wood <cnw@conradwood.netZZZ>.
Portuguese: Elcio Mello.
Spanish: Marcelo Ramos <mramos@montevideo.com.uyZZZ>.
Chinese: Yufeng Wang
Japanese: Tsukasa Yamaguchi. Available at http://www.linux.or.jp/JF/JFdocs/Debian-Jigdo.
Russian: Yuri Kozlov <kozlov.y@gmail.comZZZ>. Available at http://alioth.debian.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=30279.
Turkish: Oguz Yarimtepe <oguzy@comu.edu.trZZZ>. Available at http://docs.comu.edu.tr/howto/debian-jigdo.html.

In addition to the URLs given above, all the translations (as well as the English version) are available at my website: http://www.dirac.org/linux/debian/jigdo. If you'd like to translate this mini-HOWTO to another language, please contact me at <p@dirac.orgZZZ>.

The English version of this HOWTO can also be found at The Linux Documentation Project: http://tldp.org/docs.html.

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