Re: Feature request: install package by passing URL to apt-get

[Bijan Soleymani <bijan@psq.com>]

On 6/24/2022 4:01 AM, Darac Marjal wrote:
> On 22/06/2022 18:04, Person the human wrote:
> > I just want to get everyone's opinion on this before I request it 
> > from the developers or possibly try to add it myself.
> >
> > Would it be nice if it was possible to pass a URL to 'apt install' so 
> > that a package could be installed without first downloading its .deb 
> > file? I think it's good because it can save time and prevent 
> > unneeded damage to SSDs. Even if you don't have any info to add, 
> > please let me know what you think.
>
> Our cousins Ubuntu already have this capability since 7.10: 
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AptUrl
>
> The fact that this functionality has been available for ~15 years but 
> hasn't made it upstream into Debian suggests that Debian is not 
> interested in such functionality.

From playing with that it looks like that triggers:

apt install package

(install from the apt sources the user already has, there's syntax to 
trigger a refresh, but I don't think you can add random apt sources or URLs)

I wondered why if Ubuntu has it, practically no 3rd party software 
distributors/developers were using it.

Bijan