apt system has no payload to download

[vinay9354]

I was not able to create a signature file even though no packages existed in cache

vinay_datta@private-debian-vm:~$ sudo apt-offline --verbose set ~/nginx-info.sig --install-packages nginx
Gathering installation details for package ['nginx']
ERROR: Generated signature file /home/vinay_datta/nginx-info.sig is of 0 bytes
ERROR: This is usually the case when the underneath apt system has no payload to download
vinay_datta@private-debian-vm:~$ cd /var/cache/apt/archives
vinay_datta@private-debian-vm:/var/cache/apt/archives$ ls
lock  partial

[rickysarraf]

I aussme this is a fresh install. YOu will need to update your apt indices first. For that, you need to run set with just the --update option.