Apt-get complains about volatile paths

["Stefan Eichenberger" <Stefan.Eichenberger@netmodule.com>]

Hi,

We are using apt in one of our project to exchange the actual packages
between the developers, so that updates can easily be installed. I've
noticed that there is a problem with /var/cache/apt/archives/partial and
/var/lib/apt/list/partial, because they are volatile, apt complains
about the path which is not available (e.g. Could not open lock file
/var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (2 No such file or directory)).

I have two possible solutions for this problem, one is to make
/var/cache and /var/lib permanent, but what I saw in some discussions
before, this isn't a favorite solution. What I'm currently doing is to
create the directories on each start with an init.d script, if this is
an acceptable solution I can send a patch for that. The problem is that
then the package information are lost at each reboot (Isn't a problem in
our use case). Does someone have another solution/idea how to solve this
problem?

Regards,
Stefan