Ubuntu Linux Remove / Delete PPAs apt-get command

Over time I have added way too many PPAs using the add-apt-repository command on Ubuntu Linux 16.04/18.04 LTS server for testing purpose. How can I delete or remove those PPAs? Is there a command to list all PPAs?

Yes, you can delete or remove a PPA in Ubuntu Linux. You must have root privileges to achieve this task. This page explains how to Remove PPAs in Ubuntu Linux using various command line options.

ADVERTISEMENTS

What is a PPA?

A PPA is an acronym for Personal Package Archive. It is nothing but pre-built binary software repository for apt packages. The author uploads source code and packages are built online using Launchpad.

How do I add a PPA and install a package?

The syntax is:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:name/her
sudo apt update
sudo apt install package
For example, install a simple animated GIF screen recorder called peek using PPA:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peek-developers/stable
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install peek

How to list all installed PPAs

Type the following command:
$ grep ^ /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*
Sample outputs:

Ubuntu Linux Remove PPAs

The syntax is:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:name/here
To remove PPA named ppa:gluster/glusterfs-3.9. However, before removing PPA delete all packages installed from the same PPA using apt-get command/apt command:
$ sudo apt-get --purge remove glusterfs-server
$ sudo apt-get --purge autoremove
Now delete PPA:
$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:gluster/glusterfs-3.9
Sample outputs:

 This archive is EOL. Please use a supported version.
 More info: https://launchpad.net/~gluster/+archive/ubuntu/glusterfs-3.9
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel removing it

Finally update your repo:
$ sudo apt-get update
Sample outputs:

Hit:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/saiarcot895/myppa/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:2 http://download.nus.edu.sg/mirror/mariadb/repo/10.1/ubuntu xenial InRelease         
Get:3 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [102 kB]                     
Hit:4 http://mirror.lstn.net/mariadb/repo/10.1/ubuntu xenial InRelease                                    
Hit:5 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease              
Hit:6 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease
Get:7 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease [102 kB]
Fetched 204 kB in 1s (185 kB/s)    
Reading package lists... Done

Say hello to ppa-purge tool

The ppa-purge tool is nothing but a bash shell script capable of downgrading all packages in a given PPA back to the original Ubuntu versions. It disables a PPA. First install ppa-purge:
$ sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
Sample outputs:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  aptitude
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ppa-purge
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 6,312 B of archives.
After this operation, 24.6 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 ppa-purge all 0.2.8+bzr63 [6,312 B]
Fetched 6,312 B in 0s (24.2 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package ppa-purge.
(Reading database ... 92785 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ppa-purge_0.2.8+bzr63_all.deb ...
Unpacking ppa-purge (0.2.8+bzr63) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up ppa-purge (0.2.8+bzr63) ...

ppa-purge syntax

The syntax is:
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:repo-name/dirname
For example, remove apt-fast command repo that is used to speed up apt-get on Ubuntu Linux:
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:saiarcot895/mypp
Sample outputs:

To remove https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+archive/ubuntu/myppa you can use following syntax too:
$ sudo ppa-purge -o myppa
$ sudo ppa-purge -o saiarcot895 -p myppa
Where,

	-p [ppaname]		PPA name to be disabled (default: ppa)
	-o [ppaowner]		PPA owner
	-s [host]		Repository server (default: ppa.launchpad.net)
	-d [distribution]	Override the default distribution choice.
	-y 			Pass -y --force-yes to apt-get or -y to aptitude
	-i			Reverse preference of apt-get upon aptitude.
	-h			Display this help text

Ubuntu Linux Delete PPAs

In this final example you are going to learn how to remove or delete PPA for ansible in Ubuntu:
sudo ppa-purge -o ansible

Conclusion

You learned how to remove PPAs under Ubuntu Linux using command line options.

Category	List of Unix and Linux commands
File Management	cat
Firewall	Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04
Network Utilities	dig • host • ip • nmap
OpenVPN	CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04
Package Manager	apk • apt
Processes Management	bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time
Searching	grep • whereis • which
User Information	groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w
WireGuard VPN	Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04