Can do an "apt-get update" but for only for one package? [duplicate]

After adding a new ppa to the repository, is it necessary to update the whole database? By "whole database" I mean is it necessary to update index's of each and every packege?

If it's not necessary, then how can I update only that specific package whose ppa I have just added into the repository.

For example,

if I add an ppa by typing the following in terminal,

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tiheum/equinox

then we normally run the following command after it,

sudo apt-get update

But how can I update the only package which is associated with the above ppa, instead of updating the whole database.

Solution 1:

I'm sorry, but as far as I have ever known, you have to do the whole apt-get update.

If other repositories haven't changed, they shouldn't be downloaded again. There's a check to see if the files on the archive server have a more recent date and time than what is already on your computer. If they have changed, they will get downloaded sooner or later anyway.

Except for those individuals running development releases, the repositories that change a lot are pretty small (updates containing Stable Release Updates, and security fixes are the two repos that come to mind).

Development releases are special because the main repository, containing each main package, is being changed several times a day. The main repositories are frozen just before release.

You needn't upgrade everything, however--you can select just to upgrade just the packages you want.

Solution 2:

Yes, You need to do sudo apt-get update after adding a PPA. But if you are concerned with the download data or only want to update the index file from the PPA, then You can do a trick to prevent that.

I do this trick to avoid unnecessary update of the package list, see this question about the matter.

A workaround to update only the interested Index file:

Most of the time, we update package list to add a PPA. so this is a workaround for that

1. Create a file as /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99mysettings and
   put this line in the file. Apt::Get::List-Cleanup 'false';.

   How ? : Type these in a terminal

   sudo gedit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99mysettings    
   

   Explanation: It causes apt-get not to delete the index files which are already downloaded.

2. Disable the repositories which you do not like to update now. You can go here to see how you can disable repositories .

See the below images to do that after opening software-properties-gtk.

3. Then run apt-get update command in a terminal. wait till it ends.

4. Finally again enable all repositories which you have disabled a few minutes ago. You have now updated PPA index with all previous indexes

Hope this will help.