We are pleased to announce the launch of the Ubuntu Archive Snapshot Service’s new landing page and documentation, now available at https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/.
Overview of the Ubuntu Snapshot Service:
The service enables users to access the state of the Ubuntu archive at any given point in time starting from March 1, 2023. This capability supports various use cases such as:
- Reproducible deployments by fixing the state of packages to a specific snapshot.
- Diagnostics to identify changes in package behavior over time.
- Structured updates, allowing validation in controlled environments before wider release.
Service compatibility:
- Directly supported on Ubuntu 23.10 onward.
- Available for updated installations of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with specific apt versions.
Getting started:
For Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and newer, using snapshots is straightforward. For example:
apt install package-name --update --snapshot YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ
For earlier versions, modifications to your sources.list are necessary. Full instructions and examples are detailed on the newly launched page.
Integration with Azure:
Significantly, Microsoft Azure was the first to implement this service, enhancing the predictability and consistency of deploying updates across Ubuntu instances on Azure. Learn more about how this integration supports safe deployment practices on our blog post about Ubuntu snapshots on Azure.
This development marks a significant enhancement in our ability to offer controlled and reliable software deployment environments. We look forward to your thoughts and how you integrate this service into your projects!