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I've heard that apt has a new fancy colour and progress bar feature, but that I have to manually enable it.

How do I do this?

Seth
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  • a quick add to let users know that you can use this out of the box with no further configuration required. Colours and progress bar enabled by default, just use `apt` instead of `apt-get` – Madivad Feb 25 '16 at 23:18

3 Answers3

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For 14.04 and newer:

Make a file in: /etc/apt/apt.conf.d:

sudoedit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99progressbar

Then add these contents:

Dpkg::Progress-Fancy "1";

And save the file.

Then if your umask was not 0027, (i.e. it might also be 0023), then also set this new file's permissions to 644 (i.e. -rw-r--r--) as follows:

$ chmod 644 99progressbar

(Without this permission correction things like Debian's reportbug will stop working.)

Now enjoy apt progress bars in all their glory:

enter image description here

You can use them with these commands for a nice new apt experience:

apt update
apt install
apt upgrade

Run apt by itself for the list of commands. Colors are enabled by default for apt, and do not affect apt-get.

Colors:

You can also tweak the color of the progress bar by adding this as well:

Dpkg::Progress-Fancy::Progress-Bg "%1b[40m";

The colors are based on ANSI Color codes, look at this chart as a reference.

Sources:

Community
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Jorge Castro
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  • I am still using 13.10 (at least for the next week or two). Is this feature available in 13.10? – OSE Apr 09 '14 at 13:57
  • I am reasonably certain it is not in 13.10. – Jorge Castro Apr 09 '14 at 14:04
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    Is there any disadvantage to using apt instead of apt-get, etc? – mikeymop Apr 09 '14 at 16:10
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    That is a bit odd. I get the progress bar on apt-get upgrade, install and remove, but no colors in apt-get update, I have to use apt update. Very odd. – Seth Apr 09 '14 at 17:05
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    Hm. I'm on 13.10 and after applying this settings i see progress in both apt and apt-get as well as in dpkg. –  Apr 14 '14 at 13:09
  • What about 12.04? I've added a PPA to upgrade to the newest apt, but still can't see the color. – snowhawkyrf Apr 19 '14 at 07:34
  • @snowhawkyrf Depends what PPA you've added. Also, are you using `apt-get` or just `apt`? – Seth Apr 21 '14 at 21:41
  • @Seth I've tried the ppa:mvo/apt-src-ftparchive and added the 99progressbar file, now I can see the bar! Thanks. – snowhawkyrf Apr 27 '14 at 11:53
  • @mikeymop no, apt is the more user-friendly version of apt-get. They both offer essentially the same functionality. – xeruf May 11 '18 at 19:57
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The -o option allows to change the behavior temporarily. I described it here:

It's just not an apt-get default, but also available for apt-get, run it with

-o Dpkg::Progress-Fancy="1"

for example

sudo apt-get -o Dpkg::Progress-Fancy="1" install alpine-pico
Byte Commander
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Ralf
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4

For default colors

In addition to Jorge Castro's excellent answer, you can add an extra line to the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99progressbar file:

Dpkg::Progress-Fancy "1";
APT::Color "1";

This will enable the default colors for apt. I found it by accident while reading the apt man page:

The apt command is meant to be pleasant for end users and does not need to be backward compatible like apt-get(8). Therefore some options are different:

  • The option DPkgPM::Progress-Fancy is enabled.

  • The option APT::Color is enabled.

SO_fix_the_vote_sorting_bug
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