Debian spices up APT package manager with a dash of color, squishes ancient bug
(2024/04/18)
- Reference: 1713432673
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/04/18/apt_3_debian/
- Source link:
Major updates to Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool don't come along very often, but APT 2.9 is here with a significant facelift.
[1]APT version 2.9 has just been accepted into Debian's unstable development channel. This is an unfinished development version, which should lead to APT 3 in time for Debian 13, which [2]will probably appear around mid-2025.
The pace of development of APT seems to be accelerating. It's only just over a year since we [3]reported on APT 2.6 , development of which was spurred by the [4]inclusion of soft-loadable firmware in the default installation media for Debian 12.
[5]
There are several changes in APT 3, but they are primarily cosmetic rather than functional. It will list packages in columns, rather than full-terminal-width, comma-separated lists, which should make the output easier to read. It also lists the important section of packages to be removed last so they don't scroll off the top of the screen during large operations.
[6]
[7]
This change finally closes a [8]decade-old bug that has been open since the year that [9]APT 1.0 was released .
[10]AlmaLinux 9.4 beta prepares to tread where RHEL dares not
[11]NetBSD 10 proves old tech can still kick apps and take names three decades later
[12]Torvalds intentionally complicates his use of indentation in Linux Kconfig
[13]After delay due to xz, Ubuntu 24.04 'Noble Numbat' belatedly hits beta
Most notably, the new version uses colored output. Packages to be installed or upgraded are listed in green by default, and ones to be removed are listed in red. This will make the distinction clearer for those of us with working color vision, but it's not the best choice for those who suffer from daltonism, or red/green color blindness – the most common form, affecting some 8 or 9 percent of men.
The Reg FOSS desk suspects that the changes are in part aimed at catching up with two other packaging tools. The [14]DNF packaging tool used in Fedora, Red Hat and the RHELatives has attractively formatted output like this … but closer to home, [15]Nala , an alternative command-line package-management tool for Debian and Ubuntu, brings some of the DNF look and feel to .deb -based distros.
We have [16]recommended Nala previously and Teejeetech's [17]Snap and Flatpak-free Ubuntu remix Zinc – now renamed [18]Asmi – includes it as standard.
[19]
APT 2.9 isn't available to try just yet unless you build it from source, and indeed since the announcement, [20]version 2.9.1 has already shown up on GitHub. It's too late for inclusion in Ubuntu Noble, but it might make it into 24.10 later this year. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://tracker.debian.org/news/1518579/accepted-apt-290-source-into-unstable/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/25/debian_121/_
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/debian_12_apt_2_6/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/03/debian_12/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZiDvSR@phGuNz-et-5Z0xAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZiDvSR@phGuNz-et-5Z0xAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZiDvSR@phGuNz-et-5Z0xAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=755088
[9] https://news.softpedia.com/news/APT-1-0-Is-Out-After-16-Years-Gets-Simplified-Commands-and-Color-Output-436124.shtml
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/17/almalinux_94_ciq_lts_kernels/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/17/30yo_netbsd_releases_v10/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/16/torvalds_complicates_his_indents/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/15/ubuntu_24_04_belated_beta/
[14] https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/latest/system-administrators-guide/package-management/DNF/
[15] https://gitlab.com/volian/nala
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/13/canonical_ubuntu_ad/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/13/zinc_ubuntu_remix/
[18] https://teejeetech.com/category/linux/asmi/
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZiDvSR@phGuNz-et-5Z0xAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://github.com/Debian/apt/releases/tag/2.9.1
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
[1]APT version 2.9 has just been accepted into Debian's unstable development channel. This is an unfinished development version, which should lead to APT 3 in time for Debian 13, which [2]will probably appear around mid-2025.
The pace of development of APT seems to be accelerating. It's only just over a year since we [3]reported on APT 2.6 , development of which was spurred by the [4]inclusion of soft-loadable firmware in the default installation media for Debian 12.
[5]
There are several changes in APT 3, but they are primarily cosmetic rather than functional. It will list packages in columns, rather than full-terminal-width, comma-separated lists, which should make the output easier to read. It also lists the important section of packages to be removed last so they don't scroll off the top of the screen during large operations.
[6]
[7]
This change finally closes a [8]decade-old bug that has been open since the year that [9]APT 1.0 was released .
[10]AlmaLinux 9.4 beta prepares to tread where RHEL dares not
[11]NetBSD 10 proves old tech can still kick apps and take names three decades later
[12]Torvalds intentionally complicates his use of indentation in Linux Kconfig
[13]After delay due to xz, Ubuntu 24.04 'Noble Numbat' belatedly hits beta
Most notably, the new version uses colored output. Packages to be installed or upgraded are listed in green by default, and ones to be removed are listed in red. This will make the distinction clearer for those of us with working color vision, but it's not the best choice for those who suffer from daltonism, or red/green color blindness – the most common form, affecting some 8 or 9 percent of men.
The Reg FOSS desk suspects that the changes are in part aimed at catching up with two other packaging tools. The [14]DNF packaging tool used in Fedora, Red Hat and the RHELatives has attractively formatted output like this … but closer to home, [15]Nala , an alternative command-line package-management tool for Debian and Ubuntu, brings some of the DNF look and feel to .deb -based distros.
We have [16]recommended Nala previously and Teejeetech's [17]Snap and Flatpak-free Ubuntu remix Zinc – now renamed [18]Asmi – includes it as standard.
[19]
APT 2.9 isn't available to try just yet unless you build it from source, and indeed since the announcement, [20]version 2.9.1 has already shown up on GitHub. It's too late for inclusion in Ubuntu Noble, but it might make it into 24.10 later this year. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://tracker.debian.org/news/1518579/accepted-apt-290-source-into-unstable/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/25/debian_121/_
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/debian_12_apt_2_6/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/03/debian_12/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZiDvSR@phGuNz-et-5Z0xAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZiDvSR@phGuNz-et-5Z0xAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZiDvSR@phGuNz-et-5Z0xAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=755088
[9] https://news.softpedia.com/news/APT-1-0-Is-Out-After-16-Years-Gets-Simplified-Commands-and-Color-Output-436124.shtml
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/17/almalinux_94_ciq_lts_kernels/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/17/30yo_netbsd_releases_v10/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/16/torvalds_complicates_his_indents/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/15/ubuntu_24_04_belated_beta/
[14] https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/latest/system-administrators-guide/package-management/DNF/
[15] https://gitlab.com/volian/nala
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/13/canonical_ubuntu_ad/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/13/zinc_ubuntu_remix/
[18] https://teejeetech.com/category/linux/asmi/
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZiDvSR@phGuNz-et-5Z0xAAAAMI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://github.com/Debian/apt/releases/tag/2.9.1
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
John Robson
Hopefully they've left a flag in to allow for monochrome operation, or a config file where you can specify the colours you want to use.
"it's not the best choice for those who suffer from daltonism, or red/green color blindness"
Coloured command line is all too often a case of "works for me" and if you have the developer's choice of terminal background (and their colour vision!) it's readable but half of it disappears against some other background.