Advanced Package Tool (apt) of Ubuntu uses domestic source mirror

December 31, 2020 1 minute read

0.What is Apt?

Advanced Package Tool (or APT), the main command-line package manager for Debian and its derivatives. It provides command-line tools for searching, managing and querying information about packages, as well as low-level access to all features provided by the libapt-pkg and libapt-inst libraries which higher-level package managers can depend upon.

1.Basic command of apt:

apt install [software]: Install software
apt remove [software]: Uninstall software
apt update: Only check anything can update
apt upgrade: Update the software installed

2.Use domestic source mirror

Use domestic to speed up software downloading and installing process.

2.1.Backup Ubuntu offical source list.

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

2.2.About sources.list file.

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to newer versions of the distribution.

#: Comments

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal main

Part1	Part2	Part3_1-Part3_2	Part4
deb	http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/	focal-security	main

Part1
deb: binary package repository
deb-src: source package repository.

Part2
URL: URL of Ubuntu soure mirror

Part3_1
focal: Codename of Ubuntu. Use lsb_release -sc to check the codename.
Part3_2

security  - Important Security Updates.  
updates   - Recommended Updates.  
proposed  - Pre-released Updates.  
backports - Unsupported Updates.  

Part4
main: Canonical-supported free and open-source software. Canonical is Ubuntu’s parent company, and they provide official support for all the software packages in Main.
restricted: Officially Supported, Closed-Source Software
universe: Community-Maintained, Open-Source Software
multiverse: Unsupported, Closed-Source and Patent-Encumbered Software

2.3.Change the URL of source mirror.

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

Replace the all offical URL http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ with the URL of domestic source mirror.

Domestic source mirror:

Organisation	Url
Ali	http://mirrors.aliyun.com/ubuntu/
Tsinghua	https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ubuntu/
NetEase	http://mirrors.163.com/ubuntu/
USTC	https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/ubuntu/

For example,

former source: deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal main restricted

newer source: deb http://mirrors.aliyun.com/ubuntu/ focal main restricted

3.Start using domestic source mirror.

sudo apt update

Pengfei Zheng