[HOWTO] Search and install PPAs from the command line.

[Wrinkliez]

Soo, I got bummed that there was no way to search and install PPAs from the command line. So I created my own program to do it! It works pretty well, just don't stray off the path i.e. don't put in a letter when it asks you for a number. But, let's get started.

Installation.

Step One - Install my PPA. Warning: This program is written in Ruby. All it is is a Ruby script. If you don't want to install the Ruby language or its dependencies, I don't know what to tell you.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wrinkliez/ppasearch

Step Two - Update your repositories!

sudo aptitude update

Step Three - Install ppasearch! Make sure you agree to install the dependencies when it asks you.

sudo aptitude install ppasearch

An example of how to use ppasearch.

Step One - Run ppasearch. It will ask you what you want to install.

ppasearch

Step Two - Type whatever you want to install. I'm going to search for the PPA of my favorite twitter client, Pino. CHANGE IT TO WHATEVER YOU WANT.

pino

Step Three - Press the number to the corresponding PPA. Your answer shouldn't have brackets.

1

Step Four - Are you sure you want to install this PPA?

y

Step Five - Put in your password and your done. Just remember to update your sources via

sudo aptitude update

and there, you've installed the PPA.

[nilarimogard]

Amazing idea! Thank you very much!

Btw, we've featured PPASearch of WebUpd8 (which I see you have in your sig - so thanks for that too ).

[Kruptein]

How to install ruby on ubuntu?

I only find how to install ror,

if I do sudo apt-get install ruby (or with aptitude), I get a packet does not exist...

[nilarimogard]

@Kruptein: just install ppasearch, Ruby comes as a dependency.

@Wrinkliez: any chance PPA Search could list the searched application version for each PPA? That would be really useful...

[Kruptein]

ow yeah, I already know why it failed, nevermind

[sammyboy405]

No Matter what I search for I Get this error.

/usr/bin/ppasearch:19:in `gets': No such file or directory - gm-notify (Errno::ENOENT)
	from /usr/bin/ppasearch:19

Any Ideas on what im Missing?

[sammyboy405]

No Matter what I search for I Get this error.

/usr/bin/ppasearch:19:in `gets': No such file or directory - gm-notify (Errno::ENOENT)
	from /usr/bin/ppasearch:19

Any Ideas on what im Missing?

Figured it out..

I Need to Learn to read....

I was using ppasearch like a full CLI.. I was typing ppasearch gm-notify rather than just ppasearch by itself.

So My own fault there.

[koushik.ms]

This is an amazing idea and thanks for sharing this.

I am facing an issue when I try to run this from behind a proxy at work. I have setup the proxy using System -> Preferences -> Network Proxy and, as it happens, I have same proxy for "all protocols". So whenever I open a terminal, the following three environment variables are always defined.

ftp_proxy=ftp://squid.mycompany.com:3128/
http_proxy=http://squid.mycompany.com:3128/
https_proxy=https://squid.mycompany.com:3128/

This happens even if I only specify http proxy and tick "Use same proxy for all protocols".

When I run ppasearch and specify a search string, I get an error "in `open_http': Non-HTTP proxy URI: https://squid.mycompany.com:3128/ (RuntimeError)"

Any tips for fixing this ?

"unset"-ting the https_proxy env variable solves the problem, but I guess that is not a "clean" fix.

Full transcript of the session below.
ing02741@TREUBG:~$ ppasearch

What would you like to search for?
pino
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:203:in `open_http': Non-HTTP proxy URI: https://squid.mycompany.com:3128/ (RuntimeError)
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:616:in `buffer_open'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:164:in `open_loop'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:162:in `catch'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:162:in `open_loop'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:132:in `open_uri'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:518:in `open'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:30:in `open'
from /usr/bin/ppasearch:27
ing02741@TREUBG:~$

[sanderj]

Figured it out..

I Need to Learn to read....

I was using ppasearch like a full CLI.. I was typing ppasearch gm-notify rather than just ppasearch by itself.

So My own fault there.

The same happened to me. So maybe handy (@wrinkliez) to detect and warn for this kind of mistakes, and print a usage ...

[sanderj]

I try install google chrome / chromium like below, but I still have to type sudo apt-get install chromium-browser" afterwards.

Does ppasearch only add the repository, do I still have to invoke the "sudo apt-get install" myself? If so, how do I find out the package name (in this case chromium-browser)?

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ppasearch

What would you like to search for?
chrome

Good news! Found 6 results!

[1] PPA for Ubuntu Chromium - Beta Channel
[2] PPA for Ubuntu Chromium - Dev Channel
[3] PPA for Ubuntu Chromium - Stable Channel
[4] Better management of background windows
[5] widget
[6] PPA for shane fagan

Which one would you like to install?
3
Are you SURE you want to add ppa:chromium-daily/stable to your Software Sources? [Y/N]
y
Executing: gpg --ignore-time-conflict --no-options --no-default-keyring --secret-keyring /etc/apt/secring.gpg --trustdb-name /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --primary-keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv FBEF0D696DE1C72BA5A835FE5A9BF3BB4E5E17B5
gpg: requesting key 4E5E17B5 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: key 4E5E17B5: "Launchpad PPA for chromium-daily" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:              unchanged: 1
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo aptitude update
Ign cdrom://Ubuntu 10.04 LTS _Lucid Lynx_ - Release i386 (20100429)/ lucid/main Translation-en_US
Ign cdrom://Ubuntu 10.04 LTS _Lucid Lynx_ - Release i386 (20100429)/ lucid/restricted Translation-en_US    
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid Release.gpg                                                                                 
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main Translation-en_US                                          
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/restricted Translation-en_US
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release.gpg 
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/beta/ubuntu/ lucid/main Translation-en_US
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release.gpg [307B]              
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com lucid-security Release.gpg            
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/universe Translation-en_US
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates Release.gpg
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/stable/ubuntu/ lucid/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release.gpg 
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net/troorl/pino/ubuntu/ lucid/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release.gpg 
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net/wrinkliez/ppasearch/ubuntu/ lucid/main Translation-en_US
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid Release                          
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-security/multiverse Translation-en_US        
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-security/universe Translation-en_US          
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com lucid-security Release                                     
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release                           
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates Release                                       
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com lucid-security/main Packages          
Get:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release [57.3kB]                
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid/main Packages                        
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid/restricted Packages                    
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid/multiverse Packages                    
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid/universe Packages                      
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid/main Sources                           
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com lucid-security/restricted Packages          
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com lucid-security/multiverse Packages          
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com lucid-security/universe Packages            
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com lucid-security/main Sources                 
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com lucid-security/restricted Sources           
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid/restricted Sources                     
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates/main Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates/restricted Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates/multiverse Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates/universe Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com lucid-updates/restricted Sources
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release            
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid/main Packages
Get:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid/main Packages [3,017B]
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid/main Packages
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid/main Packages
Fetched 60.6kB in 1s (40.3kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ google-chrome
google-chrome: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ google-chromium
google-chromium: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$