The release of the APT 2.6 (Advanced Package Tool) package management tool has been formed, incorporating changes accumulated in the experimental branch 2.5. In addition to Debian and its derivatives, the APT-RPM fork is also used in some distributions based on the rpm package manager, such as PCLinuxOS and ALT Linux. The new release is integrated into the Unstable branch and will soon be moved to the Debian Testing branch, becoming part of the Debian 12 release, and will also be added to the package repository of Ubuntu.
Notable changes include:
- The toolkit and configuration files have been adapted to support the new non-free-firmware repository, into which packages with firmware have been moved from the non-free repository, allowing access to firmware without enabling the general non-free repository.
- The formatting of the copyright list file and the texts of the used licenses (COPYING) has been redesigned for easier automated parsing.
- The parameter "--allow-insecure-repositories" has been documented, which disables restrictions on working with untrusted repositories.
- Support for grouping using parentheses and the "|" (logical OR) operation has been implemented in search templates.
- Support for phased updates has been added, allowing updates to be tested first on a small test group of users before being delivered to all users.
Source: opennet.ru
