aptly – ERROR: unable to remove: published repo with storage:prefix/distribution ./mytest-stable not found

Sometimes the user manual may be unclear and you came here searching for a solution of dropping a published repository.
We have aptly version: 1.3.0 and here is the right syntax to remove a published repository.

First list the published repositories and reverse the “/” replacing it with space

The commands will be:

aptly publish list
Published repositories:
  * <name-distribution>/<release> [amd64] publishes {main: [xenial-<name>]: Some description}
aptly publish drop -force-drop <release> <name-distribution>

“name-distribution” is the “http://aptly.example.com/[name-distribution]” in the URL. For example, the repository URL of myrepo is “http://aptly.example.com/myrepo” and the name-distribution is “myrepo”.

A real world example

root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish list
Published repositories:
  * myrepo/stable [amd64] publishes {main: [xenial-myrepo]: Stable myrepo packages}
  * test/test [amd64] publishes {test: [test]: Test repo}
root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish list --raw
myrepo stable
test test

We want to remove “myrepo/stable”:

root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish drop -force-drop stable myrepo
Removing /etc/aptly/.aptly/public/etc/dists...
Removing /etc/aptly/.aptly/public/etc/pool...

The published repository has been removed successfully.
root@srv-aptly:~#

The wrong syntax

You might have tried it that’s why you came here:

root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish list           
Published repositories:
  * myrepo/stable [amd64] publishes {main: [xenial-myrepo]: Stable myrepo packages}
  * test/test [amd64] publishes {test: [test]: Test repo}
root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish list --raw
myrepo stable
test test
root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish drop myrepo
ERROR: unable to remove: published repo with storage:prefix/distribution ./myrepo not found
root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish drop myrepo stable
ERROR: unable to remove: published repo with storage:prefix/distribution stable/myrepo not found
root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish drop myrepo-stable
ERROR: unable to remove: published repo with storage:prefix/distribution ./myrepo-stable not found
root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish drop -force-drop myrepo-stable
ERROR: unable to remove: published repo with storage:prefix/distribution ./myrepo-stable not found
root@srv-aptly:~# aptly --config="/etc/aptly/.aptly.conf" publish drop -force-drop myrepo stable
ERROR: unable to remove: published repo with storage:prefix/distribution stable/myrepo not found
root@srv-aptly:~#

aptly mirror – gpgv: Can’t check signature: public key not found

If you want to mirror repositories from your current aptly server to a new server you must import the GPG key from your old server because you are going to encounter the following error:

gpgv: Signature made Fri 22 Apr 2019 17:35:04 AM UTC using DSA key ID FDC7A25E
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found

Looks like some keys are missing in your trusted keyring, you may consider importing them from keyserver:

gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring trustedkeys.gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 181482CCFDC7A25E

Sometimes keys are stored in repository root in file named Release.key, to import such key:

wget -O - https://some.repo/repository/Release.key | gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring trustedkeys.gpg --import

ERROR: unable to fetch mirror: verification of detached signature failed: exit status 2

And the mirror command fails. The problem is

you must import the GPG key from your old server in trustedkeys.gpg (even if you have already imported it in the new server with apt-key!!!)

Here is how to list, export and import it (we are going to import it in default and trustedkeys.gpg, because it is more convenient, but it is not mandatory to be in the default).
Keep on reading!