Install built packages

You have a built binary package of a source package and want to install it (e.g. to test the packages). This article demonstrates multiple ways to achieve that.

Using your package manager

You can use the apt(8), apt-get(8), or dpkg(1) package manager to install or uninstall packages on an Ubuntu installation.

Note

apt(8) is intended to be used interactively by humans and does not guarantee a stable command line interface (suitable for machine-readability) while apt-get(8) is intended for unattended usage, for example, in scripts.

dpkg(1) is a package manager for Debian-based systems. It can install, remove, and build packages, but unlike the APT package management systems, it cannot automatically download and install packages or their dependencies.

See the Install and manage packages article from the Ubuntu Server documentation for more details.

Install .deb files

You can install one or multiple .deb files by using apt install command:

sudo apt install PACKAGE.deb...

For example, to install the hello_2.10-3_amd64.deb binary package file (version 2.10-3 of the hello package for the amd64 architecture) you need to run:

sudo apt install 'hello_2.10-3_amd64.deb'

Uninstall packages

Installed packages often use configuration files and create other data files. When uninstalling a package, decide whether to keep these files or delete them, too.

Keeping configuration files is useful to avoid having to reconfigure a package if it is reinstalled later, but this may have side-effects when testing to install multiple packages.

Keep configuration files

To uninstall one or multiple packages and keep their configuration files by using the apt remove command:

sudo apt remove PACKAGE-NAME...

For example, to uninstall the currently installed hello package and keep its configuration files, run:

sudo apt remove hello

Delete configuration files

To uninstall one or multiple packages and delete their configuration files by using the apt purge command:

sudo apt purge PACKAGE-NAME...

For example, to uninstall the currently installed hello package and delete its configuration files, run:

sudo apt purge hello

Install packages from a PPA

Using add-apt-repository

The add-apt-repository command adds a Repository (e.g. a Personal Package Archive (PPA) from Launchpad) to the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory (see the sources.list(5) manual page for more details), so you can install the packages provided by the repository like any other package from the Ubuntu Archive.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:LP-USERNAME/PPA-NAME
LP-USERNAME

The username of the Launchpad user who owns the PPA.

PPA-NAME

The name of the PPA.

For example, to add the Launchpad PPA with the name hello of the Launchpad user joe, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:joe/hello

Then you can install the hello package contained in the PPA:

sudo apt install hello

See the add-apt-repository(1) manual page for more details.

Add PPA manually

Visit the web interface of the Launchpad PPA to add and click Technical details about this PPA. It shows the details you need to add the PPA.

  1. Add the PPA entry to /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory

    sudo editor /etc/apt/sources.list.d/launchpad_ppa.sources

    Add the following lines (substituting LAUNCHPAD-USERNAME and PPA-NAME for your own case) and save the file:

    deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/LAUNCHPAD-USERNAME/PPA-NAME/ubuntu SERIES main
deb-src https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/LAUNCHPAD-USERNAME/PPA-NAME/ubuntu SERIES main

  2. Add the PPA signing key to /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d directory.

    The following command downloads the PPA signing key from the Ubuntu Keyserver and stores it in the correct format in the /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d directory. Substitute SIGNING_KEY with the Fingerprint of the PPA signing key.

    wget --quiet --output-document - \
"https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x<SIGNING_KEY>" \
| sudo gpg --output /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/launchpad-ppa.gpg --dearmor -

  3. Update the package information:

    sudo apt update

  4. Install the package from the PPA:

    sudo apt install PACKAGE-NAME

For example, here is the full script to add the Launchpad PPA named hello of the user dviererbe and install the hello package from it.

sudo sh -c 'cat <<EOF > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/launchpad_ppa2.sources
deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/dviererbe/hello/ubuntu mantic main
deb-src https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/dviererbe/hello/ubuntu mantic main
EOF'

SIGNING_KEY=C83A46831F1FE7AB597E95B9699E49957C59EA64
wget --quiet --output-document - \
"https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x${SIGNING_KEY,,}" \
| sudo gpg --output /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/launchpad-ppa.gpg --dearmor -

sudo apt update
sudo apt install hello

Download the .deb files

You can also download binary packages (.deb files) from a Launchpad PPA and install them with a package manager (like demonstrated in the section Install .deb files).

Using pull-ppa-debs

The pull-ppa-debs command downloads the .deb files of one specific binary package or all binary packages, which are built by a source package in a Launchpad PPA.

pull-ppa-debs --ppa LP-USERNAME/PPA-NAME [--arch ARCH] PKG-NAME [SERIES|VERSION]
--ppa LP-USERNAME/PPA-NAME

The PPA to download the binary package(s) from.

LP-USERNAME

The username of the Launchpad user who owns the PPA.

PPA-NAME

The name of the PPA.

--arch ARCH

The architecture of the binary package(s) to download. Defaults to the system architecture of your host machine.

PKG-NAME

The name of the package to download. This can be the name of the source package to download all binary packages build by the source package or just the name of one specific binary package.

SERIES

Downloads the package with the latest version that targets the Ubuntu Series with the specified name. Defaults to the Current Release in Development.

VERSION

The version of the package to download.

The pull-ppa-debs command is part of the ubuntu-dev-tools package.

Tip

The ubuntu-dev-tools package also provides the commands:

  • pull-lp-debs (to download binary packages from Launchpad) and

  • pull-debian-debs (to download binary packages from the Debian archive).

For example, on an amd64 machine, the following command downloads the binary package named hello and targeting amd64 from the Launchpad PPA named hello of the Launchpad user dviererbe:

pull-ppa-deb --ppa dviererbe/hello hello

The downloaded filename would be similar to hello_2.10-3_amd64.deb.

See the pull-pkg(1) manual page for more details.

Using the Launchpad web interface

To download .deb files from a Launchpad PPA via the web interface:

  1. Go to the Launchpad PPA web interface and click the link called View package details.

  2. Expand the details of the package to download by clicking the little triangle next to the name of the package.

  3. Download the file(s) you need from the Package files section by clicking the respective links.