Prepared package management toolkit release APT 2.2 (Advanced Package Tool), which incorporates the changes accumulated in the experimental 2.1 branch. Apart from Debian and its derivatives, APT is also used in some distributions based on the rpm package manager, such as PCLinuxOS and ALT Linux. A new release will soon be integrated into the Debian Unstable branch and into the package base Ubuntu (experimental branch 2.1 was used in Ubuntu 20.10).
From changes can be noted:
- Added support for phased updates , which Ubuntu already uses to restrict distribution and control the deployment of updates. For example, phased updates allow you to distribute updates for the transition to a new stable release first among a small percentage of users and after some time, in the absence of regressions, distribute the updates to all other users.
- Additional templates for package selection based on dependencies have been implemented, such as “? depends” and “? conflicts”.
- Added support for the “ Protected ” field, which replaced the “Important” field and specifies the packages that are not valid for removal and are required for the system to boot correctly.
- The “–error-on = any” option has been added to the “update” command, if set, an error will be displayed on any failure.
- The method for applying and retrieving rred patches is now available as a separate program to handle pdiff files.
- The code for the removal of old kernel versions (autoremoval) has been rewritten from shell to C ++ and can now be called during apt operation, and not only when installing packages with a kernel. The change will ensure that the currently used kernel is preserved, and not the kernel active during the installation of a package with a new kernel. To avoid an overflow of the / boot partition, ensured that three cores are kept instead of four.
- The XXH3 hashing algorithm is used for indexing cache items instead of Adler32 or RC32c. Increased hash table size.
- The apt-key utility is scheduled for removal in Q2 2022.
/Media reports.