change cache location path for APT

Question

When using apt, can I tell it to use other then /var/cache/apt location? I tried adding the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf:

% cat /etc/apt/apt.conf
Dir::Cache /home/apt

and re-run apt but it still writes in /var/cache/apt

Answer 1

You can add one of the following lines to any file inside /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ or to /etc/apt/apt.conf:

Dir::Cache{Archives /home/apt/}
Dir::Cache::Archives /home/apt;

This will store all partially/full downloaded .deb files inside /home/apt.

Dir{Cache /home/apt}
Dir::Cache /home/apt;

This will store pkgcache.bin, srcpkgcache.bin inside /home/apt and all partially/full downloaded .deb files inside /home/apt/archives

Remember to add enough privileges to _apt user to that directory, so that everything works properly.

You can see the whole configuration of apt with apt-config dump, for example:

> apt-config dump | grep Dir::Cache
Dir::Cache "/home/apt";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";