Apt-Proz And Apt-Metalink: 2 Alternatives To Apt-Fast [Speed Up Apt-Get Download Speed]

apt-fast is a shell script to accelerate apt-get downloads using Axel, a command line download accelerator. Based on apt-fast, some other scripts have been created and I though they are worth mentioning:

apt-proz - which is maintained in a PPA by Damar Riyadi (thanks for the tip!), who also maintains apt-fast in his repository -, uses ProZilla to handle the downloads and Damar says it's faster (at least for him) then apt-fast (using Axel). You can get apt-proz from this PPA: ppa:tldm217/tahutek.net, then to use it, simply replace "apt-get" with "apt-proz" when installing / upgrading a package.

apt-metalink allows you to download deb packages from several sources concurrently by using repository mirrors (you'll have to add them manually in the sources.list file). It uses Aria2 to download the files and it has an extra feature compared to apt-fast and apt-proz: it can check the hash of the downloaded files. For more info and usage, see apt-metalink @ Github.

You Can Now Install Apt-Fast From A PPA Repository

Remember apt-fast? Allow me to remind you: apt-fast is a simple bash script that speeds up apt-get download speed (so you would run "sudo apt-fast install firefox" to install Firefox for example) by using Axel, a command line application which accelerates HTTP/FTP downloads by using multiple sources for one file. The author claims it's roughly 26x faster than the normal apt-get and I don't know if that's true, but a lot of users are reporting visible download speed improvements

A while back, Apt-Fast got full Apt-Get syntax replacement and now you can finally install Apt-Fast from a PPA so it's easier to install, even by non-technical users.

To install apt-fast in Ubuntu, simply copy/paste the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tldm217/tahutek.net
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast

The above PPA is available for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, 10.04 Lucid Lynx and 10.10 Maverick Meerkat!

From now on, you can use "apt-fast" instead of "apt-get" for installing packages via the command line. apt-fast doesn't just support "install" but also "upgrade" and so on.

2 Click Update For Ubuntu / Debian Based Systems [Bash Script]

2clickUpdate is a bash script which automates the update process on Ubuntu / Debian systems. The script doesn't just simply install the updates, but also cleans the downloaded packages (also removes orphaned packages) and so on.

The latest 2clickUpdate version also integrates Axel so the downloads are a lot faster then a normal update (using the same method as for "apt-fast").

The 2clickUpdate (pronounced: double-click-update) using the power of “apt-get” speeds up the updating of the operating system and programs installed without bothering you with “trivial” confirmation messages. Also it cleans your disk of all waste generated by updating procedures.

Even though it's a script, 2clickUpdate comes with modules for different tasks:

• ReApt: Updates your package list
• SpeedApt: Downloads package upgrades using "axel" for multiple connections per package boosting the speed of downloading
• AutoremApt: Removes packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for some package and that are no more needed.
• OrphanApt: Removes packages and configuration files which are not required by any other package upon your system
• AutocleanApt: Removes all stored archives in your cache for packages that are no longer in the repositories or that have a newer version in the repositories.
• CleanApt: Deleting from cache the downloaded packages to free up some space

You can read more about the latest version of 2clickUpdate, HERE.


Download 2clickUpdate.

Special thanks to Salih Emin (the author of the script) for the tip and into!