Aptly Release 1.6.0 🎉

[neolynx]

Dear Aptly Community,

We are excited to share that Aptly 1.6.0, the long-awaited update, is now available! 🎉

Thanks to the many contributions over the past years and the dedication of our new maintainers, this release introduces numerous improvements, fixes and features. Aptly 1.6.0 is a more robust and reliable tool for managing your packages and repositories.

📝 Highlights from the ChangeLog

Here are some of the key changes and new features in this release (for the full list, see debian/changelog):

• Enhanced Functionality

  • Support reading filters from files or stdin
  • Default to new YAML configuration (JSON remains supported)
  • Support updating individual components of a published repository
  • Allow slashes (/) in distribution names

• New Features

  • Provide Swagger API documentation
  • Provide new APIs for querying aptly storage usage, snapshot pull, copy package
  • Create repositories from snapshots
  • Introduce skeleton files for publishing
  • Support publishing multiple distributions (-multi-dist)
  • Etcd database support
  • Support for storing the "local" pool on Azure

• Fixes & Improvements

  • Fix publish concurrency and improve performance
  • Improved mirroring (flat remote repositories, source packages, fix ignoring signatures)
  • Fix download throttling and resuming package downloads
  • Fix packages dependency resolution (Virtual Packages, version numbers in Provides)
  • Improved S3 support and performance
  • Fix race conditions with goleveldb

• Modernized Infrastructure

  • Improved pipelines, testing and development environment
  • Migrated to Go 1.22, new Azure SDK and updated go modules

📦 New Debian Packages & APT Repositories

In addition to binary builds for macOS, FreeBSD, and Linux, Aptly now offers Debian packages for a variety of distributions and architectures:

Supported Distributions and Architectures

• Distributions: Debian 10 (Buster), 11 (Bullseye), 12 (Bookworm), Testing (Trixie); Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal), 22.04 (Jammy), 24.04 (Noble)
• Architectures: amd64, i386, arm64, armhf

Available Debian Packages

• aptly: Includes the main Aptly binary, man pages, and shell completions
• aptly-api: A systemd service for the REST API, using the global /etc/aptly.conf
• aptly-dbg: Debug symbols for troubleshooting

🗃 New APT Repository URL

Please update your APT sources (e.g. /etc/apt/sources.list.d/aptly.list) to the new repository:

deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/aptly.asc] http://repo.aptly.info/release DIST main

Replace DIST with your OS distribution: buster, bullseye, bookworm, trixie, focal, jammy, or noble.

Repository Key

The repo key remains unchanged. If needed, you can install it with:

sudo wget http://repo.aptly.info/pubkey.txt -O /etc/apt/keyrings/aptly.asc

📅 Upgrading & Compatibility Notes

• Configuration Format:
  The default configuration format is now YAML (see aptly.conf) for better readability and inline documentation. The previous JSON format is still supported.
  During Debian package upgrade, if asked, choose No to keep the existing json configuration. Aptly can convert the configuration to yaml with aptly config show -yaml, where the comments and documentation of the default config might be merged in and saved as new config file.
• Backup Recommended:
  Before upgrading, always back up your Aptly database (rootDir/db directory).

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🙏 Special Thanks

This release would not have been possible without the efforts of individual contributors, new maintainers, and users who submitted issues and shared feedback. Thanks to everyone involved in making this possible !

Special thanks also go to Sébastien Delafond, Debian Maintainer of aptly, helping with the debianization and to Martin Dvořák (dvorka) — thanks for the lunch, mate! 🍻

If you’d like to support Aptly, consider becoming a GitHub Sponsor to help with maintenance and hosting costs.

🚀 Looking Ahead

Next on our roadmap: refreshing the website and continuing to reduce issues and pull requests. Your input is invaluable — let us know via GitHub issues or discussions which features and improvements matter most to you.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays,
The Maintainers Team