Unable to change architectures with `publish switch`

[kumy]

I've published a repository and forgot to publish architecture sources.

Tried publish switch -architectures="amd64,i386,source" [...] seems to have no effect.

 $ time aptly publish switch -architectures="amd64,i386,source" -component="main,multiverse,restricted,universe" vivid distributions/ubuntu distributions_ubuntu_vivid_main_20150427 distributions_ubuntu_vivid_multiverse_20150427 distributions_ubuntu_vivid_restricted_20150427 distributions_ubuntu_vivid_universe_20150427
Loading packages...
Generating metadata files and linking package files...
Finalizing metadata files...
Signing file 'Release' with gpg, please enter your passphrase when prompted:
Clearsigning file 'Release' with gpg, please enter your passphrase when prompted:
Cleaning up prefix "distributions/ubuntu" components main, multiverse, restricted, universe...

Publish for snapshot distributions/ubuntu/vivid [amd64, i386] publishes {main: [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_main_20150427]: Snapshot from mirror [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_main]: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid [src]}, {multiverse: [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_multiverse_20150427]: Snapshot from mirror [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_multiverse]: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid [src]}, {restricted: [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_restricted_20150427]: Snapshot from mirror [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_restricted]: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid [src]}, {universe: [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_universe_20150427]: Snapshot from mirror [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_universe]: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid [src]} has been successfully switched to new snapshot.

real    7m9.841s
user    6m17.048s
sys     0m14.453s

---

 $ aptly mirror show distributions_ubuntu_vivid_main 
Name: distributions_ubuntu_vivid_main
Archive Root URL: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
Distribution: vivid
Components: main
Architectures: amd64, i386
Download Sources: yes
Download .udebs: no
Last update: 2015-04-27 13:48:51 CEST
Number of packages: 16615

Information from release file:
Architectures: amd64 arm64 armhf i386 powerpc ppc64el
Codename: vivid
Components: main restricted universe multiverse
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2015 18:46:12 UTC
Description:  Ubuntu Vivid 15.04

Label: Ubuntu
Origin: Ubuntu
Suite: vivid
Version: 15.04

 $ aptly snapshot show distributions_ubuntu_vivid_main_20150427
Name: distributions_ubuntu_vivid_main_20150427
Created At: 2015-04-27 13:48:51 CEST
Description: Snapshot from mirror [distributions_ubuntu_vivid_main]: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid [src]
Number of packages: 16615

[kumy]

Note: of course publish drop... then publish snapshot... the repo add the architectures. But the repo have to be unpublished :-1:

[sumdog]

Ran across this when I needed to update my repository to include the architecture "armhf." All of my packages are architecture independent (binary-all; Scala and Python packages) but apt-get doesn't search binary-all; instead the package must exist in the primary arch (i386, amd64). Early on I setup my aptly.conf to support "all","i386" and "amd64" but we've recently switched to using arm boards and I can't determine an easy way just to add an architecture with aptly.

Rather than mess with it, I've just changed the install instructions to tell people to add:

deb [arch=all] http://path/to/repo components

Which will also help in the future by not having to explicitly all architectures for each embedded board type we decide to support.

The limitation is two fold. The implementation of binary-all in the debian package world could have been done better, and aptly should have an easier way to add an architecture (and if there is one we're missing, add it to the official documentation? please? :+1: ).