apt-add-repository mangles ppa:sources.list files

[Jan Groenewald]

On 12.04 the command

apt-add-repository -y ppa:existing_ppa

mangles the existing ppa sources.list file, causing all updates to be broken,
command line and graphically, requiring manual intervention:

0 root@muizenberg:~#cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/aims-sagemath-precise.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/aims/sagemath/ubuntu precise main
# deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/aims/sagemath/ubuntu precise main
0 root@muizenberg:~#apt-add-repository -y ppa:aims/sagemath
Executing: gpg --ignore-time-conflict --no-options --no-default-keyring --secret-keyring /tmp/tmp.x0Deb8zJry --trustdb-name /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --primary-keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80/ --recv C5ACDE79014125D8F25B843ABDCB16CCBE796FF2
gpg: requesting key BE796FF2 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: key BE796FF2: "Launchpad PPA for AIMS" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: unchanged: 1
0 root@muizenberg:~#cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/aims-sagemath-precise.list
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/aims/sagemath/ubuntu precise main
b-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/aims/sagemath/ubuntu precise main
0 root@muizenberg:~#apt-get update
E: Type 'b-src' is not known on line 2 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/aims-sagemath-precise.list
E: The list of sources could not be read.
100 root@muizenberg:~#

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Jan Ivar Beddari (beddari)]

Oh this hit me too, just now. Tests! Test! :-)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package software-properties - 0.92.5

---------------
software-properties (0.92.5) quantal; urgency=low

  [ Colin Watson ]
  * add-apt-repository:
    - Force output encoding to UTF-8 even in non-UTF-8 locales
      (LP: #1041431).

  [ sampo555 ]
  * Construct the path of a PPA source file properly (LP: #972617, #994515,
    #1018327, #1037916).
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:41:12 +0100