this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024

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I made a local APT repository that automatically fetches DEBs and AppImages from anywhere (jlai.lu)

submitted 2 months ago by KaKi87@jlai.lu to c/linux@lemmy.ml

64 comments fedilink hide all child comments

On Debian-based distros, when an app is available as a DEB or an AppImage (that doesn't self-update), but no APT repository, PPA or Flatpak, the only option is to manually download each update, and usually manually check even whether there are updates.

But, what if those would be upgraded at the same time as everything else using the tools you're familiar with ?

dynapt is a local web server that fetches those DEBs (and AppImages to be wrapped into DEBs) wherever those are, then serves these to APT like any package repository does.

I started building it a few months ago, and after using it to upgrade apps on my computers and servers for some time, I pre-released it for the first time last week.

The stable version will come with a CLI wizard to avoid this manual configuration.

Feedback is welcome :)

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[–] semperverus@lemmy.world 45 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Obtainium but for Debian, nice

[–] timewarp@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Such a security risk though, but still better than curling scripts into sudo

[–] marmalade@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean they could add a diff thing, like how AUR helpers do it. It's not much, but it's something.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 3 points 2 months ago

I'd be willing to implement additional features for people who are extra careful about security.

Could you please explain what does this consist in ?

Thanks

[–] semperverus@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I'd say going directly to a developer's github page for packages isnt too bad, especially now with all of the security features github has in the background, but yea technically true.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 4 points 2 months ago

Thanks !

[–] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

If I'd decide to implement something like this, I'd consider two options: local repo with file:// scheme or custom apt-transport. HTTP server is needless here. (But I'll never do this because I prefer to rebuild packages myself if there's no repo for my distro.)

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

local repo with file:// scheme

With that, I couldn't trigger a download when apt update is ran, I could only do a cron, i.e. a delay, that I do not want.

custom apt-transport

I thought about that, but found no documentation on how to do it. If you have any, I'm interested.

Even just finding documentation on how to generate DEBs and APT repository metadata files was very hard.

[–] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It is documented in libapt-pkg-doc (/usr/share/doc/libapt-pkg-doc/method.html/index.html).

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 6 points 2 months ago

In an APT package OMG 😂

I found an online version though, which I would never have found through my search engine (and on a site that doesn't even support HTTPS) 😅

Looks like difficult reading too 😭

Thanks anyway.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I don't have the skill for this. I'd be very happy if someone else would make this, but if not then I'm sticking to HTTP.

[–] keturn@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I went way down the rabbit hole on this one and ended up with a proof of concept that's probably close enough to be able to wire it up: https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/3745244

I guess it didn't end up too much code, but I'm not entirely sure it's worth it.

(it's after 3 AM? oh no what have I done)

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why the OOP structure and syntax ? Sorry but it makes it difficult to read for me even in my own language 😅

[–] keturn@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

uh, because TypeScript is an object-oriented language, as are the Deno APIs? I'm not sure I understand the question.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 1 points 2 months ago

It's more functional than object-oriented and I read the former better than the latter. 😅

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[–] keturn@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

differently hacky idea:

since you do end up with all the packages in a repository on the filesystem, and you just want to have it do this just-in-time updating when the Packages file is accessed...

what if you list it as a normal file apt source, but you make the Packages file a FIFO?

it's a cursed idea but I'm not sure it is any less cursed than the other options we've come up with.

it may or may not help to have systemd.socket manage creating the FIFO and running the service.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 1 points 2 months ago

What's a FIFO ?

I've also looked into VFS but found nothing I'd have the skills to implement. 😅

[–] Asetru@feddit.org 8 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Sorry to be that guy, but this sounds like a cybersecurity nightmare. While everybody was busy to come up with schemes that make absolutely sure that only trusted sources can update a system to avoid having malicious players push their code to users, this one just takes any rando's pile of whatever and injects it straight into the system's core? Like, that doesn't sound like a good idea.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 12 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Well, I'm just automating what people currently have to do manually : visit GitHub and download DEB and install DEB.

If the automated process would be dangerous then the manual process also would be, and that would be on the maintainer for not providing an APT repository or a Flatpak, not on the user for just downloading from GitHub.

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[–] lambda@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I see it more as a local repo. Like, setup the repo to do what you would have done manually so that you don't have to do it on multiple computers. I could be misunderstanding it though.

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[–] markstos@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No matter where you install from, you have to trust the source. Indeed, you have to trust every step in the supply chain.

If you are getting your code straight from the author, you are eliminating an exploit that’s introduced by a compromised account of a packager.

Carry on.

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[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Looks great, well done.

Personally, the deb-related annoyance that I have encountered most often in recent years is that there is an APT repo but I have to jump thru hoops to add it. An example is signal-desktop, where the handy one-click installation goes like this:

# 1. Install our official public software signing key:
wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg
cat signal-desktop-keyring.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null

# 2. Add our repository to your list of repositories:
echo 'deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main' |\
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list

# 3. Update your package database and install Signal:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

Why does Debian-Ubuntu not provide a simple command for this? Yes there is add-apt-repository but for some reason it doesn't deal with keys. I've had to deal with this PITA on multiple occasions, what's up with this?

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 2 points 2 months ago

Thanks, and agreed !

Fortunately, copy/pasting works and you only have to do it once.

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[–] JustARegularNerd@aussie.zone 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

This might be for the better, but Discord was so infuriating about updates and forcing you to download them what felt like 50% of the time I opened it, I gave up and just use it in Ungoogled Chromium now. I'm pretty sure within a few months I ended up having 15+ debs of Discord in my Downloads folder.

For anyone else trying to use the native Discord app on Debian, I think they'll find this a major treat.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Discord not automating downloads of DEBs is one of the reasons motivating me to do this.

Personally I need the desktop client because I mod it with plugins that are so useful that I can't do without these anymore.

Alternatively, there are third-party repositories here and here.

There still is delay between Discord releases and repository updates so I still believe dynapt to be the better solution.

[–] cqst@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Personally I need the desktop client because I mod it with plugins that are so useful that I can’t do without these anymore.

Discord client modifications are against the Terms of Service. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

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[–] teuto@lemmy.teuto.icu 2 points 2 months ago

This is 100% of the reason that I use the discord flatpak.

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[–] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Neat! Thanks for sharing!

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 7 points 2 months ago

Thank you for your appreciation !

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I like it. Wonder if this could be retooled to work on rpm-ostree systems, because any layered packages installed from RPM files have the same limitation of needing to be manually upgraded.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 3 points 2 months ago

I don't know anything about RPMs, but if you or anyone is familiar with it then perhaps !

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Great idea!

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 2 points 2 months ago

Thanks !

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is that autotiling on cinnamon? Didn't know it could do that

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 5 points 2 months ago

It doesn't, that's provided by Cortile.

[–] Daeraxa@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Willing to give this a go. My go-to for getting non-repo debs automatically has been deb-get which works well but seems susceptible to issues when changes in the software it lists causes it to break and whilst the fix itself is usually made pretty quickly, it seems to go long periods of time between PR merges and releases (which includes adding new software). If this is a viable replacement for it then i'd love to start using it.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 1 points 1 month ago

Willing to give this a go.

Alright, don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any and request help if you need any

My go-to for getting non-repo debs automatically has been deb-get

Yes, I mentioned it in the Differences with deb-get & AM section of my tutorial.

it seems to go long periods of time between PR merges and releases (which includes adding new software)

Yeah, I could reiterate in that section that my app allows the user to add apps themselves.

[–] markstos@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is somewhat re-inventing some things Ansible can do, which is download and install software whether it has a formal or informal source.

Ansible is the automation I use to manage personal and professional servers.

[–] KaKi87@jlai.lu 3 points 2 months ago

Which isn't user-friendly.

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