add-apt-repository Cannot Manage deb822 Repository Sources

[Josh Lopez]

On Ubuntu 23.10...

* When adding a PPA, 'add-apt-repository' will add the repository in the new deb822 format as a '<ppa-name>.sources' file in '/etc/apt/sources.list.d'

* However, 'add-apt-repository --list' cannot see/understand the new '<ppa-name>.sources' file

For example, with the flacon ppa (https://launchpad.net/~flacon/+archive/ubuntu/ppa):

1. 'sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flacon/ppa' adds the flacon repo as '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/flacon-ubuntu-ppa-mantic.sources'

2. apt can install and update from the new repo, as expected. you can also remove the repo, as expected, by running 'sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:flacon/ppa'

3. However, 'add-apt-repository --list' does not list the repo as it should. GUI package managers such as Muon and Synaptic also do not see the new repo.

It makes working with packages quite frustrating, and unfortunately, per Julian Andres Klode (juliank), there seems to be no plan to fix the broken 'software-properties-common' any time soon. See here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-properties/+bug/2033949

Also see related issues:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ppa-purge/+bug/2036761
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-properties/+bug/2037210
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+bug/2036288
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2023-September/042791.html

[Josh Lopez (mojo.lo)]

For now I'm using the following workaround to create the old style '<ppa-name>.list' file. It's a pain, but PPA management works peachy again.

---

1. Create an 'aptaddppa' function (ZSH):

---

aptaddppa () {

     curl -fsSL "https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x${4}" | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/"${1}".gpg

     echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] ${2} $(lsb_release -cs) ${3}" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/"${1}".list

     sudo apt update
}

---

2. From the command line:

---

$ aptaddppa flacon https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/flacon/ppa/ubuntu main 0606FBEA73863686801BE20ED5790E4FF2A61FE5

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

I marked this as a duplicate because Ubuntu 24.04 LTS does handle PPAs now. I recommend trying Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Beta when it is released soon.

Could you open a separate issue for add-apt-repository --list not returning any deb822 repositories?