Details

This tool, currently called apt-now but soon to be changed to repo-now, is essentially a static site generator geared toward generating and formatting a specific type of content in a specific type of way, the content being GNU/Linux or Android/Linux binary packages, and the format being a signed repository accessible from the web or something like it(It can also, for instance, be used to statically host software repositories over i2p with no substantial modification.) It does this by taking advantage of the structural regularity of these types of resources and constructs the whole site on the client side, transmitting content to the server only after a valid repository has been built. This means that the server doesn't have to run any code at all to present the site to the end-user taking advantage of the resource over the web, doesn't need to support ssh or remote desktop, and doesn't even technically need to support ftp or git, as long as a way of transferring the repository to the remote storage service can be included in the program.

Use Cases

If you're one of these people and you have a bitcoin or two lying around, you could send them my way and support development.

Versioning and Features

Right now, binary repository generation for Debian(APT Repositories) is stable and source repository generation for Debian/Apt is nearing stability and are in usuable form. While these are the only working types of repositories, the pre-hyphenate part of this project's name will be "apt." Additionally, while an end user could use any means to transfer the repository constructed by the apt-now tool, there is currently only support for the use of github-pages as a hosting medium in the code. While this remains the case the post-hyphenate part of this project's name will be "git." When experimental support for F-Droid and Redhat(Yellowdog Updater) are complete, additional ways of transferring the files will be considered and added, and the final version will implement APT, YUM, and F-Droid repositories in an easy to configure, polyglot(But probably not agnostic) way.

You should be aware that if you use this, your .git directory will be visible to all users of the repository, allowing them to completely copy the repository and it's entire history. It assumes that is what you want. If you don't, you must remove the .git directory manually. In the future, a command-line option will be provided.

Repository Types

Transport Types

Misc Features

Screenshot

apt-now hosted 4 ways

apt-now hosted 4 ways

On Deck