How to Add or Remove PPA in Ubuntu Using GUI and Terminal

Personal Package Archives (PPA) enables you to upload Ubuntu source packages to be built and published as an apt repository by Launchpad.

PPA is a unique software repository intended for non standard software/updates; it helps you to share out software and updates directly to Ubuntu users.

All you need to do is create your source package, upload it and Launchpad will build binaries and then host them in your own apt repository. This makes it is easy for Ubuntu users to install your packages in the same way they install standard Ubuntu packages, and importantly, they will automatically get updates once you make them available.

In this article, we will show you various ways of adding or removing a PPA to or from software sources respectively in Ubuntu Linux and it’s derivatives such as Linux Mint, Lubuntu, Kubuntu etc.

Add PPA via GUI Using Software Sources

In Ubuntu search for “Software & Updates” and in Linux Mint, search for “Software Sources” from the Unity Dash and System Menu respectively.

In the “Software & Updates” or “Software Sources” interface below, head over to Other Software tab and click on Add button to add a new PPA.

Add PPA in Ubuntu
Add PPA in Ubuntu

Once you have added the new PPA URL, click on Add Source button.

Add PPA URL in Ubuntu
Add PPA URL in Ubuntu

Now, enter your password to make the change.

Authenticate to Make Changes
Authenticate to Make Changes

Remove PPA via GUI Using Software Sources

To remove a PPA, select it from the list as shown in the screenshot below, then click on Remove button to delete it.

Remove PPA in Ubuntu
Remove PPA in Ubuntu

Add PPA from Ubuntu Terminal

To add a PPA from the terminal, use the syntax as follows, here we are adding a Ansible IT automation software PPA:

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible 
Add PPA from Terminal
Add PPA from Terminal

The command above will create a file ansible-ansible-xenial.list under /etc/apt/sources.list.d:

Remove PPA from Ubuntu Terminal

You can remove a PPA as follows, the following will delete the Ansible PPA from the system:

$ sudo apt-add-repository --remove ppa:ansible/ansible
Remove PPA from Terminal
Remove PPA from Terminal

The above command will remove the Ansible PPA file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ansible-ansible-xenial.list.

Note: All the methods above will only remove the PPA but the packages installed from it will remain on the system, and you won’t receive updates from the PPA.

Purge PPA from Terminal

We use ppa-purge deletes a PPA and downgrades all the packages installed from it.

To install it, run the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

After installing it, remove a PPA like so:

$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:ansible/ansible
Purge PPA in Ubuntu
Purge PPA in Ubuntu

Here is an overview about a Personal Package Archive (PPA), read through it, if you want to start creating packages for Ubuntu Linux.

That’s It! In this article, we showed you various ways of adding or removing a PPA to or from software sources respectively in Ubuntu Linux and it’s derivatives such as Linux Mint, Lubuntu, Kubuntu etc. Use the comment section below to write back to us.

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Aaron Kili
Aaron Kili is a Linux and F.O.S.S enthusiast, an upcoming Linux SysAdmin, web developer, and currently a content creator for TecMint who loves working with computers and strongly believes in sharing knowledge.

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4 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Thanks for the clear article. I tried to remove a PPA from terminal, and got the “Press enter to confirm, control-C to cancel.” message. However, when I type

    $ ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d
    

    it still shows the PPA that I was trying to remove. Shouldn’t it be deleted from that directory?

    Reply
  2. You can also use “Y PPA MANAGER“, this tool lets you an easy way to: add, update, remove, purge or search for packages in Launchpad PPAs. For its installation in Ubuntu family:

    $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager
    

    Greetings from Málaga (Spain)

    Reply

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