When testing local package builds, particularly for clean upgrading (i.e. after
making packaging changes), it can be useful to set up a local mirror so as to
test regular apt-get dist-upgrade.  There are other ways of doing this, but I
find reprepro to be the simplest and most reliable.

== Setting up a local mirror with reprepro ==

* Install:

{{{
sudo apt-get install reprepro
}}}

* Set up:

{{{
sudo mkdir -p /var/packages/ubuntu/conf
cat | sudo tee /var/packages/ubuntu/conf/distributions << EOF
Origin: Local updates
Label: Local updates
Codename: raring
Architectures: i386 amd64 source
Components: main
Description: Local APT repository
EOF
}}}

You can drop architectures you won't use, and switch Codename for
whichever release you actually intend to use.  Now add the .debs
you want.  You need to be in /var/packages/ubuntu to do so:

{{{
cd /var/packages/ubuntu
reprepro includedeb raring /full/path/to/name.deb
}}}

i.e.

{{{
cd /var/packages/ubuntu
for f in /home/ubuntu/*.deb; do
	reprepro includedeb raring $f
done
}}}

Finally, update your sources.conf to include this mirror

{{{
cat | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list << EOF
deb file:/var/packages/ubuntu raring main
EOF
}}}

Now you can apt-get update to read your mirror.

== Signing ==

In xenial and beyond, apt by default requires signed archives.  To create one with reprepro,

 * create a gpg key with 'gpg --gen-key'
 * export the key, "gpg --export -a > pub.key"
 * import they into apt using "apt-key add pub.key"
 * Get the key id (for the secret key) using gpg --list-keys
 * In the distributions file created above, add the line "SignWith: keyid"
 * If you provided a password for the key, then next to the distributions file, you must create a file called 'options' containing the line "ask-passphrase"

== References ==

I found http://www.jejik.com/articles/2006/09/setting_up_and_managing_an_apt_repository_with_reprepro/ particularly helpful