Accelerate download of apt-get via aria2 in Ubuntu

Need for download accelerator

In ubuntu software installation is done via apt-get or synaptic. Both of them download the required packages from the repositories via wget. While wget is great, it doesn't accelerate the download. After a bit of research (read googling) I found the script apt-fast script written by Matt Parnell and the apt-axel script written by freshmeat user jespino. Both of these scripts use axel (a command line download accelerator) to accelerate the download of apt-get.
Unfortunately I couldn't configure axel for proxy support. Since I was behind proxy, this was a major deal killer. Finally after a bit of googling I found that aria2, another command line download accelerator supported proxy. So I re-wrote the apt-fast script to use aria2 instead of axel and named it apt-aria2 (Not very original name I admit).

Requirements

You off-course need to install aria2

sudo apt-get install aria2

Installation

Installation is pretty easy. Just download the apt-aria2 script, make it executable and put it in your $PATH.

chmod +x apt-quick
sudo cp apt-quick /usr/local/bin/

Note that putting the apt-aria2 script in $HOME/bin will not work even though it is in the $PATH. As a user you will be able to access it. However using the sudo command you won't be able to use the script. This is probably because $HOME/bin is not in the $PATH of the superuser, but only the user.

 

Proxy settings

Proxy setting is same as proxy setting for apt-get. Open or create the apt.conf file

sudo gedit /etc/apt/apt.conf

and copy the following lines

## Proxy settings
Acquire::http::proxy "http://username:password@your.proxy:port/";
Acquire::ftp::proxy "ftp://username:password@your.proxy:port/";
Acquire::https::proxy "https://username:password@your.proxy:port/";

where you should replace the username, password, proxy and port by your own username, password, proxy and port respectively. Duh! In case of couple of softwares (eg.: flashplugin-installer and ttf-mscorefonts-installer) download of the actual software is always via wget. In that case one should also configure the wget proxy. Open the wgetrc file

sudo gedit /etc/wgetrc

Scroll down to the proxy lines and replace them by

https_proxy = http://username:password@your.proxy:port/
http_proxy = http://username:password@your.proxy:port/
ftp_proxy = http://username:password@your.proxy:port/
use_proxy = on

Usage

Usage is pretty much the same as apt-get. A few examples are as follows:

sudo apt-aria2 install package1 package2
sudo apt-aria2 update
sudo apt-aria2 upgrade
sudo apt-aria2 remove package1
sudo apt-aria2 purge package1

In case of update, it directly uses apt-get. In other cases where one has to download the software (Eg.: install, upgrade, dist-upgrade) it downloads the software via aria2 and installs in via apt-get.

 

Multiple simultaneous downloads

Apt-get always locks the process, so at any given time one can only use one instance of apt-get. However using the ``-d" (download-only, no installation) option of apt-aria2, one can use multiple instance of apt-aria2. Once download is complete for all packages, one then has to use apt-aria2 again without the ``-d" option, to install the same packages. Eg:

## In terminal 1
sudo apt-aria2 -d install package1 package2
## In terminal 2
sudo apt-aria2 -d install package3
## After all downloads are complete
sudo apt-aria2 install package1 package2 package3

However, one should use the ``-d" option with caution. The packages being installed simultaneously

• shouldn't have the same dependencies
• shouldn't conflict with each other.

Known bug

If more than one packages are being installed, then once apt-aria2 starts, its difficult to stop the download by pressing ``Ctrl+c". This is because, as soon as one presses ``Ctrl+c", it stops the current download and starts downloading the next in line. I can't seem to write the script which would stop it once and for all. If someone knows the solution to this let me know.
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