How to download .deb package and all dependencies?

For all answers i found about this topic, the solution was to create, in a certain computer A where i need to install the package, a file containing all dependencies it needs and then downloading it in another computer, let's call it B.

The thing is, i want to have a storage of certain critical software i need to work to be able to install them offline later on in case i have to format my desktop.

I REALLY DON'T CARE about having a lot of redundant .deb files in my computer, and I REALLY DON'T CARE if i'm going to store 1gb of files to install a 10mb software.

So, i want to have any possible dependency downloaded. Is there someway i can do this?

Solution 1:

I would go with this:

apt-cache depends -i PACKAGE | awk '/Depends:/ {print $2}' | xargs apt-get download && apt-get download PACKAGE

Then you can install it with dpkg -i *.deb in the directory you downloaded these.

Solution 2:

Is this a one-time thing, or something you want to keep updated? Are you mostly working online, and just want a local backup of all your packages, just in case?

There are several services that you can install that act as an APT proxy/cache. You point APT at your local cache, it will download from the Internet, and keep a locally cached copy of all the packages. This can be very useful if you have lots of computers on your network with an identical selection of packages.

My prefered apt cache is approx, but there is also apt-cacher-ng, and a few others. Each has minor differences about how caching can be configured.

I always use the minimal netinst installers to build my Debian based systems, which means my apt cache usually has almost all the packages to fully build my systems.