Japt-Proxy 1.3 review
DownloadJapt-Proxy is a JAVA based Caching Proxy for Debian's APT-System
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Japt-Proxy is a JAVA based Caching Proxy for Debian's APT-System. Japt-Proxy is very reliable and lightning fast. Japt-Proxy is usually used in environments where several Debian systems have to be kept up-to-date without downloading the same files over and over again from the debian mirrors. Mostly these environments are data centers, Linux-powered companies, schools, public authorities and so on.
Often Japt-Proxy is used because of small sized internet connections but it is also useful to install complete debian systems over the net (read: over the proxy). Even with high volume internet connections Japt-Proxy can dramatically reduce the time to install or update Debian on many machines.
Why Java?
I know there are people out there thinking "Hey? Why Java?". There are a bunch of reasons why people asking those questions. I have a simple answer to all those questions. The answer is, that Java enabled me to easily develop the fastest and most reliable APT-Proxy. Java and the Apache Software Foundation provides such good libraries for this job, that it wasn't very hard to bring up this tool.
If you don't trust, test it - the installation takes less than five minutes!
Doesn't a general proxy server supersede an APT-Proxy?
No, it doesn't. Japt-Proxy knows the characteristics of a Debian archive and their files. It knows, for example, that .deb files won't change, because newer files would have a new name (the version is always part of the filename), hence it won't recheck if there is a newer version of this specific file.
Furthermore you can configure the Japt-Proxy to delete old versions of a package in its cache directory - a general proxy cache would simple delete files that haven't been requested for some time.
So, a general caching proxy like Squid is a perfect tool for caching "normal" internet traffic. If you need a proxy for faster APT access - Japt-Proxy is the right tool for you.
Here are some key features of "Japt Proxy":
Caching of all apt requests from Debian archives
Multi-threaded architecture which increases the download speed enormously when several machines are requesting packages
Builds up a partial mirror directory automatically, with exactly the same directory structure and filenames as the original mirror
Automatic and configurable cache cleanup (purging packages in cache if newer versions exists)
Makes sources.list configuration easier for multiple machines - if you change your internet backend server you only have to make the change once in Japt-Proxy, instead of on all Debian machines
Works with multiple architectures
Backend support for HTTP and FTP
existing .debs can be copied into the Japt-Proxy cache directory (from a CD or DVD for example) and will be used by the Proxy automatically
Requirements:
Java Runtime Environment 5.0
Apache Tomcat 5.5
Japt-Proxy
What's New in This Release:
Fixed removal of packages - in some special cases new packages where deleted and old ones kept.
Old micro archives (.udeb) were not removed.
Improved logging in case of internal errors.
Return http status code 404 (not found) instead of 503 (service unavailable) in cases where the requested file couldn't by downloaded from any backend.
Setting the timezone for If-Modified-Since headers changed the time for non-GMT Japt-Proxy servers. So mutable files were downloaded again if a new version check was required. Fixing this bug makes an 'apt-get update' faster if nothing has changed.
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