Nala – An Alternative To APT Package Manager

In this article we are going to learn about Nala – An Alternative To APT package manager. APT is slow… single downloading and generally uses slow mirrors as it doesn’t optimize them out of the box. It also doesn’t have a history so rolling back updates can really suck.

Help all that is now fixed with Nala and it is absolutely wonderful. Not only does it fix all that listed above but it makes the updates look beautiful.

Nala - An Alternative To APT

Install Nala

Add Repository

echo "deb http://deb.volian.org/volian/ scar main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/volian-archive-scar-unstable.listwget -qO - https://deb.volian.org/volian/scar.key | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/volian-archive-scar-unstable.gpg

Update Ubuntu

$ sudo apt update

Update Ubuntu

Installation of  Nala on Ubuntu 22.04

$ sudo apt install nala

Install on Ubuntu 21 and below:

$ sudo apt install nala-legacy

Update Mirrors

This will drastically speed up your downloads

$ sudo nala fetch

Select the mirrors you want from the list. Typically you will want to select three. Here is an example:

Nala - An Alternative To APT

techdhee@ubuntu:~|⇒  sudo nala fetchFetching Ubuntu mirrors…╭─  Fastest Mirrors ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮│                                                                          ││   Index    Mirror                                               Score    ││       1    http://mirror.deace.id/ubuntu/                       76 ms    ││       2    http://repos.del.extreme-ix.org/ubuntu/              101 ms   ││       3    http://mirror.soonkeat.sg/ubuntu/                    102 ms   ││       4    https://repo.huaweicloud.com/ubuntu/                 117 ms   ││       5    http://mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in/ubuntu-mirro…    132 ms   ││       6    https://mirrors.gbnetwork.com/ubuntu/                138 ms   ││       7    http://kartolo.sby.datautama.net.id/ubuntu/          142 ms   ││       8    http://mirror.datacenter.by/ubuntu/                  146 ms   ││       9    http://ubuntu.ntc.net.np/ubuntu/                     146 ms   ││      10    https://in.mirror.coganng.com/ubuntu-ports/          146 ms   ││      11    http://ftp.tsukuba.wide.ad.jp/Linux/ubuntu/          148 ms   ││      12    http://mirror.init7.net/ubuntu/                      149 ms   ││      13    http://ftp.tudelft.nl/archive.ubuntu.com/            151 ms   ││      14    http://mirrors.bangmod.cloud/ubuntu/                 151 ms   ││      15    http://mirror.clearsky.vn/ubuntu/                    152 ms   ││      16    https://mirror.coganng.com/ubuntu-ports/             157 ms   ││                                                                          ││   Score is how many milliseconds it takes to download the Release file   │╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯Mirrors you want to keep separated by spaces (1..16): 1 2 3 4 5

Convert APT to Nala

Add the following to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrcAND /root/.bashrc or /root/.zshrc file:

apt() {   command nala "$@"}sudo() {  if [ "$1" = "apt" ]; then    shift    command sudo nala "$@"  else    command sudo "$@"  fi}

From here you can install programs with apt or Nala command and it will always work perfectly!

Update Repositories using Nala

$ sudo nala update

Nala - An Alternative To APT

techdhee@ubuntu:~|⇒  sudo nala update╭─ Updating Package List ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮│Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe DEP-11 64x64 Icons…││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe DEP-11 64x64@2 Ico…││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 c-n-f Metada…││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse amd64 Packages […││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse i386 Packages [1…││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse Translation-en […││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse amd64 DEP-11 Met…││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse DEP-11 48x48 Ico…││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse DEP-11 64x64 Ico…││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse DEP-11 64x64@2 I…││Updated:   http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse amd64 c-n-f Meta…││Fetched 94.0 MB in 6s (229 kB/s)                                              │╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯All packages are up to date.techdhee@ubuntu:~|⇒

Upgrade Packages

$ sudo nala upgrade -y

Nala - An Alternative To APT

techdhee@ubuntu:~|⇒  sudo nala upgrade -y╭─ Updating Package List ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮│No Change: http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/Linux/ubuntu jammy InRelease            ││No Change: https://repo.extreme-ix.org/ubuntu jammy InRelease                 ││No Change: http://deb.volian.org/volian scar InRelease                        ││No Change: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease                   ││Updated:   http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease [110 kB]││No Change: http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease                ││No Change: http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease        ││No Change: http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease      ││Fetched 110 kB in 6s (0 B/s)                                                  │╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯All packages are up to date.techdhee@ubuntu:~|⇒

Install Packages

To install a package using Nala, for example, neofetch, simply run the following command:

$ sudo nala install neofetch

echdhee@ubuntu:~|⇒  sudo nala install neofetch ================================================================================ Installing                                                                     ================================================================================  Package:                  Version:                                     Size:    caca-utils                0.99.beta19-2.2ubuntu4                       57 kB    chafa                     1.8.0-1                                      39 kB    gsfonts                   1:8.11+urwcyr1.0.7~pre44                    3.1 MB                              -4.5                                                  imagemagick               8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3buil                     15 kB                              d2                                                    imagemagick-6-common      8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3buil                     64 kB                              d2                                                    imagemagick-6.q16         8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3buil                    224 kB                              d2                                                    jp2a                      1.1.1-1                                      29 kB    libaom3                   3.3.0-1                                     1.7 MB    libchafa0                 1.8.0-1                                      88 kB    libdav1d5                 0.9.2-1                                     463 kB    libde265-0                1.0.8-1                                     243 kB    libfftw3-double3          3.3.8-2ubuntu8                              770 kB    libheif1                  1.12.0-2build1                              196 kB    libid3tag0                0.15.1b-14                                   31 kB    libilmbase25              2.5.7-2                                     175 kB    libimlib2                 1.7.4-1build1                               195 kB    libjxr-tools              1.2~git20170615.f752187-                     16 kB                              5                                                     libjxr0                   1.2~git20170615.f752187-                    174 kB                              5                                                     liblqr-1-0                0.4.2-2.1                                    28 kB    libmagickcore-6.q16-6     8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3buil                    1.8 MB                              d2                                                    libmagickcore-6.q16-6-e…  8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3buil                     70 kB                              d2                                                    libmagickwand-6.q16-6     8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3buil                    328 kB                              d2                                                    libnetpbm10               2:10.0-15.4                                  59 kB    libopenexr25              2.5.7-1                                     780 kB    libsixel-bin              1.10.3-3                                     18 kB    libsixel1                 1.10.3-3                                    111 kB    libx265-199               3.5-2                                       1.2 MB    neofetch                  7.1.0-3                                      84 kB    netpbm                    2:10.0-15.4                                 1.0 MB    toilet                    0.3-1.4                                      13 kB    toilet-fonts              0.3-1.4                                     714 kB    w3m                       0.5.3+git20210102-6build                    1.1 MB                              3                                                     w3m-img                   0.5.3+git20210102-6build                     24 kB                              3                                                                                                                                   ================================================================================ Suggested, Will Not Be Installed                                               ================================================================================  Package:                  Version:                                     Size:    imagemagick-doc           8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3buil                      1 kB                              d2                                                    autotrace                 Virtual Package                                0 B    curl                      7.81.0-1ubuntu1.3                           194 kB    enscript                  1.6.5.90-3                                  407 kB    ffmpeg                    7:4.4.2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1                    1.7 MB    gimp                      2.10.30-1build1                             4.9 MB    gnuplot                   5.4.2+dfsg2-2                                 4 kB    grads                     3:2.2.1-4build1                             4.6 MB    graphviz                  2.42.2-6                                    650 kB    hp2xx                     3.4.4-11                                    337 kB    html2ps                   1.0b7-5                                      98 kB    libwmf-bin                0.2.12-5ubuntu1                              34 kB    mplayer                   2:1.4+ds1-3build1                           2.3 MB    povray                    1:3.7.0.10-1                                1.3 MB    radiance                  Virtual Package                                0 B    texlive-binaries:i386     2021.20210626.59705-1bui                   10.0 MB                              ld1                                                   fig2dev:i386              1:3.2.8b-1                                  431 kB    ufraw-batch               Virtual Package                                0 B    libfftw3-bin              3.3.8-2ubuntu8                               36 kB    libfftw3-dev              3.3.8-2ubuntu8                              2.1 MB    inkscape                  1.1.2-3ubuntu1                             17.8 MB    figlet                    2.2.5-3                                     133 kB    cmigemo                   1:1.2+gh0.20150404-7.1                        8 kB    dict                      1.13.0+dfsg-1build2                          48 kB    dict-wn                   1:3.0-37                                   10.7 MB    dictd                     1.13.0+dfsg-1build2                         113 kB    w3m-el                    1.4.632+0.20210201.2305.                    656 kB                              54c3ccd-1                                             xsel                      1.2.0+git9bfc13d.2018010                     20 kB                              9-3                                                                                                                                 ================================================================================ Summary                                                                        ================================================================================ Install 33 Packages                                                                                                                                             Total download size  14.9 MB    Disk space required  57.3 MB                                   Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y╭─ Downloading… ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Total Packages: 33/33                                                        ││ Last Completed: gsfonts_8.11+urwcyr1.0.7~pre44-4.5_all.deb                   ││ Time Remaining: 0:00:00 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 100.0% • 14.9/14.9 MB • 549.2 kB/s │╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯╭─ Installing Packages ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮│update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/montage-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/monta…││update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/montage-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/monta…││update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/mogrify-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/mogri…││update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/mogrify-im6.q16 to provide /usr/bin/mogri…││Setting up: imagemagick (8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3build2)                          ││Processing: triggers for fontconfig (2.13.1-4.2ubuntu5)                       ││Processing: triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.26-1ubuntu3)                   ││Processing: triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2)                          ││Processing: triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu3)                        ││Processing: triggers for libc-bin (2.35-0ubuntu3)                             ││Processing: triggers for man-db (2.10.2-1)                                    ││Processing: triggers for mailcap (3.70+nmu1ubuntu1)                           ││╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮│││✔ Running dpkg … ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 100.0% • 0:00:00 • 67/67│││╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯│╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯Finished Successfullytechdhee@ubuntu:~|⇒

View Nala Help

To display nala command help section, use -h or --help flag like below:

$ nala -h

techdhee@ubuntu:~|⇒  nala -h         Usage: nala [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...  Each command has its own help page.  For Example: `nala history --help`Options:  --version             Show program's version number and exit.  --license             Reads the GPLv3 which Nala is licensed under.  --install-completion  Install completion for the current shell.  --show-completion     Show completion for the current shell, to copy it or                        customize the installation.  -h, --help            Show this message and exit.Commands:  autopurge   Autopurge packages that are no longer needed.  autoremove  Autoremove packages that are no longer needed.  clean       Clear out the local archive of downloaded package files.  fetch       Fetch fast mirrors to speed up downloads.  history     Show transaction history.  install     Install packages.  list        List packages based on package names.  purge       Purge packages.  remove      Remove packages.  search      Search package names and descriptions.  show        Show package details.  update      Update package list.  upgrade     Update package list and upgrade the system.

Conclusion

This is everything about the Nala package manager. Great work by the team that came up with all these drastic improvements and it has made it much easier on Debian-based distros.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

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