On Debian-based distros, when an app is available as a DEB or an AppImage (that doesn't self-update), but no APT repository, PPA or Flatpak, the only option is to manually download each update, and usually manually check even whether there are updates.

But, what if those would be upgraded at the same time as everything else using the tools you're familiar with ?

dynapt is a local web server that fetches those DEBs (and AppImages to be wrapped into DEBs) wherever those are, then serves these to APT like any package repository does.

I started building it a few months ago, and after using it to upgrade apps on my computers and servers for some time, I pre-released it for the first time last week.

The stable version will come with a CLI wizard to avoid this manual configuration.

Feedback is welcome :)

  • bizdelnick@lemmy.ml
    ·
    2 months ago

    If I'd decide to implement something like this, I'd consider two options: local repo with file:// scheme or custom apt-transport. HTTP server is needless here. (But I'll never do this because I prefer to rebuild packages myself if there's no repo for my distro.)

    • KaKi87@jlai.lu
      ·
      2 months ago

      local repo with file:// scheme

      With that, I couldn't trigger a download when apt update is ran, I could only do a cron, i.e. a delay, that I do not want.

      custom apt-transport

      I thought about that, but found no documentation on how to do it. If you have any, I'm interested.

      Even just finding documentation on how to generate DEBs and APT repository metadata files was very hard.

      • bizdelnick@lemmy.ml
        ·
        2 months ago

        It is documented in libapt-pkg-doc (/usr/share/doc/libapt-pkg-doc/method.html/index.html).

        • KaKi87@jlai.lu
          ·
          2 months ago

          In an APT package OMG 😂

          I found an online version though, which I would never have found through my search engine (and on a site that doesn't even support HTTPS) 😅

          Looks like difficult reading too 😭

          Thanks anyway.

        • KaKi87@jlai.lu
          ·
          2 months ago

          Yeah, I don't have the skill for this. I'd be very happy if someone else would make this, but if not then I'm sticking to HTTP.

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    ·
    2 months ago

    I like it. Wonder if this could be retooled to work on rpm-ostree systems, because any layered packages installed from RPM files have the same limitation of needing to be manually upgraded.

    • KaKi87@jlai.lu
      ·
      2 months ago

      I don't know anything about RPMs, but if you or anyone is familiar with it then perhaps !

    • KaKi87@jlai.lu
      ·
      2 months ago

      Sorry to ask

      Don't be. I would love to know that an existing and more experienced program does what mine does.

      I've been looking for it myself for a long time before deciding to build it.

      isn’t this basically the same thing as apt-cacher-ng?

      Here's what I'm reading :

      Apt-Cache-ng is A caching proxy. Specialized for package files from Linux distributors, primarily for Debian (and Debian based) distributions but not limited to those.

      A caching proxy have the following benefits:

      • Lower latency
      • Reduce WAN traffic
      • Higher speed for cached contents
      +------------+         +------------+        +------------+
| Apt Client |  <------+ Apt Cache  | <------+ Apt Mirror |
+------------+         +------------+        +------------+

      So, not the same thing.

      It locally mirrors existing repositories containing existing packages, it doesn't locally create a new repository for new packages from standalone DEBs.

      • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
        ·
        2 months ago

        OK yeah, I wasn't sure if it had a way to collect debs from other sources. I've been using it for years to locally cache the standard Debian repos so I don't need to re-download packages every time I update my various servers and VMs, but I haven't really tried using it for anything beyond that.

  • skimm@lemmy.sdf.org
    ·
    2 months ago

    Neat project!

    While this might not solve all of your use cases, did you consider a tool like mise?

    Theres a number of other options out there such as asdf-vm and others who's names I can't recall. I recently moved from asdf to miss but its a great way to install things on different machines and track it with your dotfiles, or any other repo you want to use. Mise has tons of configuration options for allowing overrides and local machine specific versions.

    It won't tie into apt for your upgrades but you could just alias your apt update to include && mise up.

  • Daeraxa@lemmy.ml
    ·
    1 month ago

    Willing to give this a go. My go-to for getting non-repo debs automatically has been deb-get which works well but seems susceptible to issues when changes in the software it lists causes it to break and whilst the fix itself is usually made pretty quickly, it seems to go long periods of time between PR merges and releases (which includes adding new software). If this is a viable replacement for it then i'd love to start using it.

    • KaKi87@jlai.lu
      ·
      1 month ago

      Willing to give this a go.

      Alright, don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any and request help if you need any

      My go-to for getting non-repo debs automatically has been deb-get

      Yes, I mentioned it in the Differences with deb-get & AM section of my tutorial.

      it seems to go long periods of time between PR merges and releases (which includes adding new software)

      Yeah, I could reiterate in that section that my app allows the user to add apps themselves.