nala takes multiple packages as arguments and will install all of them just like apt.

nala downloads packages in parallel. Along with this nala can download packages from multiple mirrors concurrently to speed up downloads further. We put in place a limit to 3 packages per mirror so we don't put too much pressure on them. This caps out at a maximum of 16.

For more information and options run nala install --help

remove works similar to the way it does in apt, but nala will also autoremove packages.

For more information and options run nala remove --help

purge works similar to remove, but also gets rid of configuration files.

For more information and options run nala purge --help

update updates the package list. Works exactly like apt update with better formatting.

upgrade upgrades packages installed on the system.

By default nala will run the equivalent of apt update && apt full-upgrade --auto-remove.

This behavior can be changed in the configuration file or you can use nala upgrade --no-update.

For more information and options run nala upgrade --help

autoremove removes any packages that are no longer needed.

For more information and options run nala autoremove --help

autopurge purges any packages that are no longer needed.

For more information and options run nala autopurge --help

clean will remove any .deb files in the archive directory, typically /var/cache/apt/archives

For more information and options run nala clean --help

fetch is the first command that doesn't have an apt counterpart.

nala will parse either:

the Debian mirror list from https://mirror-master.debian.org/status/Mirrors.masterlist,

nala will then select the mirrors that it has determined are the fastest.

This is done by downloading the Release file and timing how long it takes.

For more information and options run nala fetch --help

show information about the given package(s) highlighted with color to improve readability.

For more information and options run nala show --help

search all packages in the cache with a regex string. By default searches package names, source names, and descriptions.

For more information and options run nala search --help

list packages in the cache.

For more information and options run nala list --help

history is another command not found in apt. Every install, remove, or upgrade command is stored with an id. You can use history to view these in a summary style view, and even go more in depth with history info [id]. If you're familiar with how Fedora's dnf history command works, then you'll feel right at home.

This command is inspired by dnf's history functionality.

For more information and options run nala history --help

<https://gitlab.com/volian/nala/-/issues>