add-apt-repository command not found – Debian & Ubuntu – Quick Fix

1

add-apt-repository is a command line utility for adding PPA (Personal Package Archive) in Ubuntu and Debian Systems. Install the following package based on your operating system to have the add-apt-repository command.

Debian / Ubuntu LTS:

If you are using Debian / Ubuntu LTS such as 18.04, 16.04, and 14.04 systems then install software-properties-common package to get add-apt-repository command.

sudo apt-get install -y software-properties-common

Output:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  gir1.2-packagekitglib-1.0 python3-software-properties unattended-upgrades
Suggested packages:
  needrestart
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gir1.2-packagekitglib-1.0 python3-software-properties software-properties-common unattended-upgrades
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 229 kB of archives.
After this operation, 967 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 https://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 gir1.2-packagekitglib-1.0 amd64 1.1.5-2 [34.6 kB]
Get:2 https://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 python3-software-properties all 0.96.20.2-1 [49.5 kB]
Get:3 https://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 software-properties-common all 0.96.20.2-1 [83.6 kB]
Get:4 https://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 unattended-upgrades all 0.93.1+nmu1 [61.7 kB]
Fetched 229 kB in 0s (232 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package gir1.2-packagekitglib-1.0.
(Reading database ... 124215 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../gir1.2-packagekitglib-1.0_1.1.5-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking gir1.2-packagekitglib-1.0 (1.1.5-2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package python3-software-properties.
Preparing to unpack .../python3-software-properties_0.96.20.2-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking python3-software-properties (0.96.20.2-1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package software-properties-common.
Preparing to unpack .../software-properties-common_0.96.20.2-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking software-properties-common (0.96.20.2-1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package unattended-upgrades.
Preparing to unpack .../unattended-upgrades_0.93.1+nmu1_all.deb ...
Unpacking unattended-upgrades (0.93.1+nmu1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (232-25) ...
Setting up unattended-upgrades (0.93.1+nmu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Setting up gir1.2-packagekitglib-1.0 (1.1.5-2) ...
Setting up python3-software-properties (0.96.20.2-1) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.10.18-1) ...
Setting up software-properties-common (0.96.20.2-1) ...

Ubuntu 13.10 and Older:

If you are using Ubuntu v13.10 or older, the add-apt-repository command is available on python-software-properties package. So, Install python-software-properties package using the apt-get command.

sudo apt-get install -y python-software-properties

Once you have installed the required package then you can add PPA using the add-apt-repository command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:some/ppa

That’s All.

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