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You want to build a local package repository for your LAN to share?

A local repository is useful if you have many users sharing a low-bandwidth Internet connection; your Debian systems can grab packages from the local repository, rather than going out over the network.

How?

Use apt-proxy:
# apt-get install apt-proxy
apt-proxy starts up automatically after installation.

Next, edit the add_backend/debian/ section of /etc/apt-proxy/apt-proxy.conf so that it points to geographically close package mirrors. (See http://www.debian.org/mirror/list for a list of package mirrors.)

Now edit /etc/apt/sources.list on the client machines to point to the apt-proxy server. The default port is 9999:
deb http://ip-or-hostname:9999

Run apt-get update on the client machines, and you’re in business. Every time a client machine on your LAN installs a new program, it will be cached on the apt-proxy server. Subsequent requests for the same package will be served by the local cache. Very cool!

You want to keep your package cache and package lists tidy and up-to-date, so that apt will work correctly and not encounter bogus dependency problems?

Use apt and dpkg.

Remember to run apt-get update after making changes to /etc/apt/sources.list, and run it periodically to keep package lists current.

To look for downloaded, uninstalled packages, use:
$ dpkg —yet-to-unpack

To check for broken dependencies, use:
# apt-get check

To remove cached packages that are no longer needed, use:
# apt-cache autoclean

To remove all cached packages, use:
# apt-cache clean

To show partially installed packages, use:
$ dpkg —audit

Your package cache can easily consume tens, or even hundreds, of megabytes. See for yourself in /var/cache/apt/archives. To conserve storage space, set up a local package cache for your network.

For example you want to upgrade to a newer release; for example, from Woody to Sarge.

First, edit /etc/apt/sources.list so that it has only Sarge entries. Then do the following:
# apt-get update
# apt-get -u upgrade
# apt-get -u dist-upgrade

The -u flag lets you review the changes first. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection and how many packages are required, this can take up to several hours.