How to run a command before download with apt-get

apthook

How can I run a command before apt-get starts to download a package?

I know about the dpkg pre-invoke hook ( hook a script to apt-get ), but that seems to be run after the download.

$ apt-get update
Get: 11 http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates/main qemu amd64 1.1.2+dfsg-6a+deb7u7 [115 kB]
Fetched 70.9 MB in 10s (6,776 kB/s)
refreshing freenet index
--2015-05-19 15:55:25--  http://127.0.0.1:8888/freenet:USK@oRy7ltZLJM-w-kcOBdiZS1pAA8P-BxZ3BPiiqkmfk0E,6a1KFG6S-Bwp6E-MplW52iH~Y3La6GigQVQDeMjI6rg,AQACAAE/deb.mempo.org/-42/

What we need is to run a command before the download. More exactly: The script must run after calling apt-get but before apt-get accesses any online resource.

Is there something like a Pre-Download hook?

It is important that the installation can be done without having to replace the script apt-get (and without doing anything else which could be undone by an update).

Best Answer

What about using apt pre/post-invoke hooks?

Essentially it is similar to dpkg pre/post-invoke hooks but for apt (which I'm assuming is actually the important one in your usage scenario). AFAIK there are others but I've only used like this.

E.g.

$ sudo cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/05new-hook
APT::Update::Pre-Invoke {"your-command-here"};
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