local-apt-repo-updater

local-apt-repo-updater is a local APT repository updater. It conditionally downloads .deb packages from upstream sources, maintains a local APT repository, and only rebuilds repository metadata when packages actually change.

Features

• Three package sources: GitHub release assets, fixed URLs, and Apache-style directory listings
• Conditional downloads using If-Modified-Since, with a Last-Modified/local-mtime comparison and a Content-Length comparison as fallbacks for servers that don't support it
• Debian-version-aware selection of the newest .deb from a directory listing
• Declarative YAML configuration
• Rebuilds APT metadata only when a package actually changed

Installation

pip install local-apt-repo-updater

Configuration

Location

The configuration file must be located at:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/local-apt-repo-updater/config.yaml

If XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set:

~/.config/local-apt-repo-updater/config.yaml

Template variables

The filename (and url for fixed_urls) fields are Python format strings. The following variables are available:

github_releases

When the expanded filename value contains * or ? wildcards, the release asset list is fetched from the GitHub API and the pattern is matched against it to discover the real filename at runtime. This handles releases where part of the filename is unpredictable (e.g. a build counter). Example: project_{APP_VERSION}-*_amd64.deb

github_releases options

apache_directory

Fetches the newest version of a package from an Apache directory listing. The filename field is a glob pattern, or a list of glob patterns, matched against the .deb files found at url; for each pattern, all matching files are compared using proper Debian version ordering and the newest one is downloaded. Epoch, upstream version, Debian revision, and tilde pre-release markers (~) are all handled correctly.

apache_directory options

fixed_urls

fixed_urls options

OS variables (all keys from platform.freedesktop_os_release())

Other keys from os-release (e.g. ID_LIKE, UBUNTU_CODENAME) are also available if present on the system.

Example configuration

apt_repo_directory: /path/to/apt/repo
github_releases:
- repo: https://github.com/example/project
  filename: example-{APP_VERSION}.deb
- repo: https://github.com/example/unpredictable-filename-project
  filename: "project_{APP_VERSION}-*_amd64.deb"
fixed_urls:
- url: https://example.com/downloads
  filename: example.deb
  conditional: last_modified
- url: https://no-lastmodified-headers.example.net/linux/repo/ubuntu_{VERSION_ID}/amd64
  filename: example_{VERSION_ID}_amd64.deb
  conditional: content_length
apache_directory:
- url: https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-all/
  filename: "protonvpn-stable-release_*_all.deb"

Usage

local-apt-repo-updater

or

local-apt-repo-updater --verbose

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• apt-ftparchive in PATH
• Python packages:
  • requests
  • PyYAML
  • platformdirs

Design notes

• Uses HTTP HEAD and conditional GETs to minimize bandwidth