Debian’s APT 3.2 Arrives With New Solver Work and History Rollback Features

APT 3.2 is now the latest stable release of Debian’s package manager, bringing a range of new features and improvements. One of the standout additions is the enhanced history functionality, which introduces several new commands:

• apt history-rollback — revert package changes to a previous transaction
• apt history-list — display a list of past package transactions
• apt history-info — show detailed information about a specific transaction
• apt history-undo — undo a selected transaction
• apt history-redo — reapply a previously undone transaction

In addition, APT 3.2 includes significant improvements to its dependency resolver. These updates enhance propagation, provider handling, source package upgrades, package selection logic, and backtracking, resulting in more accurate and reliable dependency management.

The release also introduces JSONL-based performance counter logging, offering a structured way to capture performance data. This makes debugging, testing, and analyzing package management behavior more efficient.

Further enhancements improve how APT handles package metadata and system-specific scenarios. Notably, the update adds support for architecture variants and enhances the apt why command to display all available providers for virtual packages.

On the usability side, APT 3.2 expands shell completion support to cover more commands and search patterns, improving the overall command-line experience.

Finally, several behavior changes have been implemented to increase reliability during package operations. The system will now stay awake while dpkg is running, helping prevent interruptions during installations or upgrades. Additionally, apt-daily will automatically run when the system is connected to AC power.

At present, APT 3.2 is available in Debian’s unstable branch (sid). Debian testing and the upcoming Debian 13 stable release still include older versions, meaning this update will gradually reach a broader audience as it progresses through the Debian release cycle.

For more details, see the changelog.