Is Nala APT 2.0 ?

APT Package Manager

If Ubuntu or Debian are operating system you are using on a daily basis, then apt is probably tool which is used at least once per day.

APT is default package manager on these operating systems and it is being used for installing and removing different apps. Whenever you access these operating systems remotely you can use apt from terminal to install different apps or small utilities like, Curl, Wget, Nano, Docker etc...

Most used commands are:

1. apt-get update

2. apt-get install

3. apt autoremove

4. ...

But apt can be cumbersome and not user-friendly. Output can be messy and in most of the time we will not pay attention what are dependencies which will be installed and how much space on our hard drive it will occupy..

Figure 1 - List of utilities to be installed with apt

Nala package manager

Nala is a small app written in Python which should improve overall experience we have with apt. We can install Nala using apt (paradox right) using this command:

sudo apt-get install nala

After we install there are couple important commands we should remember and use:

# Fetch

Using command "sudo nala fetch" Nala will get all the mirrors from the respective master list. Once done we test the latency and score each mirror. Nala will choose the fastest 3 mirrors (configurable) and write them to a file. These mirrors will be used for future use.

Figure 2 - Nala fetching mirror to determine fastest ones

# Parallel Downloads

Compared to APT Nala is working parallel when it is fetching and installing packages so this can improve install time a lot. To limit load on mirror s it will hit only mirrors we saved after "fetch" command

# History

Using command

nala history

we can see all

commands we executed in the past.

Figure 3 - Nala history

# Install

Commands to install packages are similar to apt so you will not spend too much to get used to new tool. For example you can install libreoffice using following command:

sudo nala install libreoffice

# User Experience

Compared to apt Nala is user friendly (considering it is terminal app). It is color coded and it will print all utilities which will be installed and their size. It will also print all suggested app, but it will not install them by default.

Figure 4 - Nala shows install Nginx summary

Figure 5 - Nala shows summary of installed utilities

# Verdict

People don't change habits which are making them comfortable and that is also truth for engineers and app they are using. Nala is definitely something you should try. There are several advantages listed in the article and overall experience is definitely better compared to apt, so it's up to you to decide will you stick with apt or try something new. I will definitely give Nala a chance to be my favorite package manage for Ubuntu and Debian...