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I was looking for a way to find the contents of an apt package and I found a post that advised to use apt-file. I installed using:

sudo apt install apt-file
sudo apt-file update

This update took ages and some of the packages are quite large. Now even when I use sudo apt update there seems to be additional repos that were added when I installed apt-file.

$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for david: 
Hit:1 http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb stable InRelease
Hit:2 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease                                                          
Hit:4 http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary jammy InRelease                                                                
Get:5 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial/main amd64 Contents (deb) [1,736 B]                    
Get:3 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable InRelease [3,590 B]                                             
Get:6 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable/main amd64 Packages [18.6 kB]                                   
Get:7 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable/main armhf Packages [18.7 kB]                                  
Hit:8 http://apt.pop-os.org/release jammy InRelease                                        
Get:9 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable/main arm64 Packages [18.7 kB]       
Hit:10 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/freecad-maintainers/freecad-daily/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Hit:11 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Hit:12 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/freecad-maintainers/freecad-stable/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Get:13 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease [129 kB]
Get:14 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease [128 kB]
Hit:15 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease
Get:16 http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary jammy all Contents (deb) [160 B]
Get:17 http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary jammy amd64 Contents (deb) [149 kB]
Get:18 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy i386 Contents (deb) [36.9 MB]
Get:19 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy amd64 Contents (deb) [46.9 MB]                                               
Get:20 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-security amd64 Contents (deb) [128 MB]                                       
Get:21 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-security i386 Contents (deb) [57.6 MB]                                       
Get:22 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages [1,988 kB]                                       
Get:23 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-updates i386 Contents (deb) [59.9 MB]                                        
Get:24 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-updates amd64 Contents (deb) [132 MB]                                        
Get:25 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-backports i386 Contents (deb) [721 kB]                                       
Get:26 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-backports amd64 Contents (deb) [730 kB]                                      
Fetched 465 MB in 1min 48s (4,318 kB/s)                                                                                
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
48 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

I think from Get:13 to Get:26 are new and were added when I installed apt-file. And some of them are quite large (ie. 128Mb).

I was instructed to use apt-file as follows: sudo apt-file list freecad

but when I run that command I get the message:

$ apt-file list freecad
Finding relevant cache files to search ...E: The cache is empty. You need to run "apt-file update" first.

even after I just did an update with sudo apt-file update

How do I undo all of this? I don't really care about getting apt-file working. I would be happy just removing it and getting rid of these extra repos.

I'm using PopOS 22.04 LTS

Edit:

:/var/lib/apt/lists$ ll | grep Contents
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       121 Sep  4 21:46 apt.pop-os.org_proprietary_dists_jammy_Contents-all.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    295798 Sep  4 21:46 apt.pop-os.org_proprietary_dists_jammy_Contents-amd64.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1228496 Jul 19 00:53 apt.pop-os.org_ubuntu_dists_jammy-backports_Contents-amd64.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1210558 Jul 19 00:54 apt.pop-os.org_ubuntu_dists_jammy-backports_Contents-i386.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  78887238 Apr 21  2022 apt.pop-os.org_ubuntu_dists_jammy_Contents-amd64.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  61822472 Apr 21  2022 apt.pop-os.org_ubuntu_dists_jammy_Contents-i386.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 205323747 Jul 26 09:33 apt.pop-os.org_ubuntu_dists_jammy-security_Contents-amd64.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  93188769 Jul 26 15:41 apt.pop-os.org_ubuntu_dists_jammy-security_Contents-i386.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 211888095 Jul 26 01:31 apt.pop-os.org_ubuntu_dists_jammy-updates_Contents-amd64.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  96983720 Jul 26 06:31 apt.pop-os.org_ubuntu_dists_jammy-updates_Contents-i386.lz4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      3240 Sep  4 23:00 updates.signal.org_desktop_apt_dists_xenial_main_Contents-amd64.lz4
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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

To undo all of this, purge apt-file:

sudo apt purge apt-file

This will remove apt-file and its configuration, so future apt update invocations will no longer download Contents files.

The extra files that are downloaded are requested by the configuration in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50apt-file.conf. You can if you wish keep apt-file installed but disable blanket Contents downloads by adding another configuration file, shipped with the package:

sudo cp /usr/share/doc/apt-file/examples/60disable-contents-fetching.conf /etc/apt/apt.conf.d

Once that’s done, only repositories with an explicit [target+=Contents-deb] will have Contents files downloaded.

The “cache is empty” error is rather strange; if you want to fix that, start by looking in /var/lib/apt/lists — are there any Contents files there?

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1
  • The configuration file worked to stop the extra downloads. I edited the original post to include the listing of /var/lib/apt/lists Commented Sep 7, 2024 at 19:03

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