One thing I love about Linux is the ability to try new applications. After all the open source community is very active and new applications are being created all the time. The command-line makes it easy to add and remove Personal Package Archives. However their is a tool which will let you add, remove, search, manage Personal Package Archives(PPA) and more from a GUI. I will talk about it below.
First the basics. You can easily add a PPA from the command-line with the following commands.
add-apt-repository ppa:
For exaple in three easy commands I can install the application CLI Companion:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:byobu/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install byobu
Because of my endless tinkering and checking out the latest software our FOSS developers have created I ended up with quite a large collection of Personal Package Archives(PPA). Some of which I no longer used.
At first I was unsure how to get rid of these. Today I did a little research and wanted to share with you what I found. This includes a cool new application called Y PPA Manager. Whether it is the command-line or a fancy GUI app we will have you cleaning up your collection of Personal Package Archives in no time.
From the terminal you can use a very similar command that you used to add the PPA.
sudo apt-add-repository –remove ppa:
Then run the following to download the package lists from the repositories and “update” them to get information on the newest versions of packages and their dependencies. It will do this for all repositories and PPAs
sudo apt-get update
Saved The Best For Last
I came across a project which had a lot of positive reviews and made many top 10 application lists. The features definetly peeked my interest. The application is Y PPA Manager. Y PPA Manager is a tool which simplifies this process of managing Personal Package Archives (PPA). It allows adding, deleting and purging PPAs easily. You can also search and install PPAs from Launchpad repositories by entering the name of an application. I gave it a spin today and I have to say so far I like it. You can install Y PPA Manager with the following commands,
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager
The main interface is quite self explanatory. You can Add a new PPA from the Add button and delete added sources from the Remove button. To get a list of your packages, use the “List Packages”. The Advanced options allows backing up, restoring and purging PPAs.
What makes this application really useful is its PPA search ability. This allows you to easily find a Launchpad PPA, click on Search all Launchpad PPAs and enter an application name. You can also enable the Deep Search option for a more advanced search.
Whichever option you choose your PPPA list will now be much more …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu