Ubuntu: Basics of software repositories

Ubuntu: Basics of software repositories

Ubuntu uses apt for package management. Apt stores a list of repositories or software channels in the file

/etc/apt/sources.list


This is important to note as if you want to add sources for software packages you are going to either edit this file or add a referenced source file in the same format.

As with anything that deals with your system’s configuration it is recommended you perform a backup. A simple file copy operation would suffice:

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.backup


a typical source.list file looks as follows:

## Note, this file is written by cloud-init on first boot of an instance

## modifications made here will not survive a re-bundle.

## if you wish to make changes you can:

## a.) add ‘apt_preserve_sources_list: true’ to /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg

## or do the same in user-data

## b.) add sources in /etc/apt/sources.list.d

## c.) make changes to template file /etc/cloud/templates/sources.list.tmpl

#

 

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to

# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy main

deb-src http://azure.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy main

If you want to add an additional repository you can do it via the command line:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:<repository-name>


This will result in a new file created under /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ where the .list files are included as part of the sources.list. This approach allows for enhanced ease when it comes to maintaining multiple ppa sources.