Repository Management – How to Enable Source Code Repositories in Ubuntu

Software repositories as used for apt-get are set in /etc/apt/sources.list.

apt-add-repository adds additional repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list. Note that the extension is .list too. To find all occurences of these *.list files, run the next command in a terminal window:

find /etc/apt/ -name '*.list' -ls -exec cat {} \;

It will provide all useful information regarding software repositories used by apt. If this list is very long, and a file is preffered, use the next command to create a file in the current directory, named repositories.txt:

find /etc/apt/ -name '*.list' -ls -exec cat {} \; > repositories.txt

To post this list on Askubuntu, go to http://paste.ubuntu.com/ and paste the list in the big text field. Submit the form by pressing "Paste!" and copy the URL from the location bar (which should look like "http://paste.ubuntu.com/566454/"). Finally, paste this URL in your question.

Note: Source repositories are different from source packages. The repositories, if selected or present in your software sources, are updated whenever you check for updates. Source packages, on the other hand, are never automatically installed -- regardless of whether you use apt-get install or the Software Center. You must explicitly install them with apt-get source, etc.

No, the source repositories are not required for a normal user; you also do not have to download or install any source packages for the proper functioning of your software.

To remove them, open Software Center, and go to the Edit menu...Software Properties.

• Click on the box to the left of Source Code as shown below. If you are asked for your password enter it. The box should then be unchecked (white box). Click on close.