artiya4u / apt-fast

apt-fast: A shellscript wrapper for apt that speeds up downloading of packages.

apt-fast 1.8

apt-fast is a shellscript wrapper for apt-get and aptitude that can drastically improve apt download times by downloading packages in parallel, with multiple connections per package.

Setup/Install

Ubuntu 14.04 and later versions

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/myppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install apt-fast

Ubuntu 11.04~13.10 (out of date)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install apt-fast

Ubuntu PPA

You can use the Ubuntu PPA to get a graphical configuration file setup and automatic updates, for details see:

• ppa:saiarcot895/myppa(for Ubuntu 14.04 and later versions)
• ppa:apt-fast/stable(out of date, for Ubuntu 11.04~13.10)

Some distros, such as PCLinuxOS include apt-fast in their repos.

Manual

A manual install can be performed as such:

cp apt-fast /usr/bin/
chmod +x /usr/bin/apt-fast
cp apt-fast.conf /etc

You need to have aria2c installed:

apt-get install aria2

Then simply run apt-fast instead of apt-get or aptitude.

Multiple mirrors

Adding multiple mirrors will further speed up downloads and distribute load, be sure to add mirrors near to your location. Official mirror lists:

• Debian: http://www.debian.org/mirror/list
• Ubuntu: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archivemirrors

Then add them to whitespace and comma separated list in config file, e.g.:

MIRRORS=( 'http://ftp.debian.org/debian, http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian, http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian, ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian' )

MIRRORS=( 'http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu, http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu, http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/ubuntu, http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu, http://mirror.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/pub/linux/distributions/ubuntu/' )

NOTE: To use any mirrors you may have in sources.list or sources.list.d you will need to add them to the apt-fast.conf mirror list.

Autocompletion

Bash

cp completions/bash/apt-fast /etc/bash_completion.d/
chown root:root /etc/bash_completion.d/apt-fast
. /etc/bash_completion

Zsh

cp completions/zsh/_apt-fast /usr/share/zsh/functions/Completion/Debian/
chown root:root /usr/share/zsh/functions/Completion/Debian/_apt-fast
source /usr/share/zsh/functions/Completion/Debian/_apt-fast

Man page installation

cp ./man/apt-fast.8 /usr/share/man/man8
gzip -f9 /usr/share/man/man8/apt-fast.8
cp ./man/apt-fast.conf.5 /usr/share/man/man5
gzip -f9 /usr/share/man/man5/apt-fast.conf.5

License

Consider apt-fast and all of its derivatives licensed under the GNU GPLv3+.

Copyright: 2008-2012 Matt Parnell, http://www.mattparnell.com Improvements, maintenance, revisions - 2012 Dominique Lasserre

Special thanks

• Travis/travisn000 - support for complex apt-get commands
• Allan Hoffmeister - aria2c support
• Abhishek Sharma - aria2c with proxy support
• Luca Marchetti - improvements on the locking system and downloader execution
• Richard Klien - Autocompletion, Download Size Checking (made for on ubuntu, untested on other distros)
• Patrick Kramer Ruiz - suggestions
• Sergio Silva - test to see if axel is installed, root detection/sudo autorun, lock file check/creation
• Waldemar {BOB}{Burnfaker} Wetzel - lockfile improvements, separate config file
• maclarke - locking improvements