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