adding new component to published repo

[TimoSairiala]

I have a local repo which I have published already. But I have to add deb packages with another component name to this same published repo. Is there any way to publish it again with new component name included without dropping the already published repo?

Detailed Description

What I do is I have one published repo:

aptly repo create -distribution=my_test -component=main test-adding-component
aptly repo add test-adding-component humble/main/amd64
aptly publish repo -architectures="amd64" test-adding-component

=> so far so good now I have to add more packages with another component name

aptly repo create -distribution=my_test -component=added-component test-adding-component-custom
aptly repo add test-adding-component-custom humble/test_add/amd64/
aptly publish repo -architectures="amd64" -component=, test-adding-component test-adding-component-custom

This last publishing gives an error because this is already published: ERROR: prefix/distribution already used by another published repo: ./my_test [amd64] publishes {main: [test-adding-component]}

Context

I am running aptly on nas with big amount of deb packages and what ever I do it takes ages. If I run aptly publish drop it also means that repo is not accessible for a while. It is possible I am just doing something wrong or misunderstood instructions, maybe I should be running it another way?

Possible Implementation

maybe some sort of republish or force parameter would do the trick or possibly there already exists something?

[alamaral]

I had exactly the same problem, until a minute ago. To drop the publish you need to find the distribution and prefix from he aptly publish list command:

root@foobar:/var/aptly# aptly publish list Published repositories:

• stuff/jammy [amd64] publishes {main: [stuff-jammy-main]: Production 22.04 build stuff software}, {staging: [stuff-jammy-staging]: Staging 22.04 build}, {test: [stuff-jammy-test]: Test 22.04 build stuff software}

The distribution here is jammy and the prefix is stuff, so to drop the publish the command is:

aptly publish drop jammy stuff.

While this works just find for unpublishing the repo so you can add a new component to it, you LOSE EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAD PUT INTO THE EXISTING REPO...

Yup. You're screwed big time...

I believe that this is a MAJOR flaw in aptly. You should be able to either add a new component to a published repo, or somehow unpublish the repo without destroying it in the process.

It has been suggested to me to use snapshots, but my repo changes constantly because we use gitlab CI/CD and every single checkin to gitlab builds a package that ends up in aptly. Plus I reluctantly inherited what I've got, and don't want to change how this works.

[neolynx]

Hi @TimoSairiala, @alamaral,

and thanks for reporting...

I would also recommend to use snapshots, I think the problems you are describing led to the introduction of snapshots. Apropos 'reluctantly inherited', I feel you ... :) but there is only one way forward...

it should not bee too hard to introduce snapshots (even without breaking the current approach and running both in parallel).

Here is what I would try:

• before the aptly publish repo , take a snapshot of the repo:

  $ aptly snapshot create snapshot1 from repo test-adding-component
  
  Snapshot snapshot1 successfully created. 
  You can run 'aptly publish snapshot snapshot1' to publish snapshot as Debian repository.
  

• after the aptly repo publish, publish the snapshot additionally:

   aptly publish snapshot  -acquire-by-hash -architectures="amd64" -keyring=trustedkeys.gpg -gpg-key=gpg@email snapshot1 publish1
  

- do more releases, and more snapshots
- now, instead of deleting and recreating the repo publish, just switch the snapshot-publish to the newest snpshot:

aptly publish switch -keyring=trustedkeys.gpg -gpg-key=gpg@email my_test publish1 snapshot2

- then delete unused snapshots afterwards, there is also `snapshot rename` in case you wanna do a temporary snapshot, remove the main snapshot, and rename the temporary snapshot to the main name
- this reduces 'downtime', the published files fill not disapear (also thanks to `-acquire-by-hash`)
- there is also `aptly publish update`, in case other parameters of the publish should be modified
- if all of this works, and you see the files you want in the new publish, remove the repo publish code and rename the publish

so publishing a repo directly offers way less functionality, and when you delete such a publish, the files will be gone until you republish. ideally you would do this only once, when switching to snapshots

hope this helps !