How to Remove or Delete a PPA in Ubuntu Linux?

A PPA (Personal Package Archive) is a collection of packages built and hosted by the users. The PPA repository connects the third-party software to Ubuntu Operating System, and adding a new PPA is adding a new repository. It is an unofficial package installer; to add a package not present in the default repository, we can add it from the PPA repository and use it.

The unnecessary PPA slows down the system and does not get updates to the latest version. Therefore, we must remove or delete its PPA repositories from the system. In this guide, we will demonstrate different methods to delete or remove a PPA from the system. The outcomes are listed as follows:

Note: We will be using the “ansible” PPA in this guide. The command provided below is utilized to add that PPA into our system.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ansible/ansible

Now, let’s explore the methods to remove a PPA.

Method 1: Remove a PPA (CLI Method)

The command line interface is the primary utility to address various Linux queries. Most of the tasks in Linux are carried out using the terminal. In this section, we will provide the possible list of commands to remove a PPA using the terminal.

Method 1.1: Using the “add-apt-repository” Command

The “add-apt-repository” command is utilized to add and remove the PPA’s from Ubuntu.

The steps below are carried out to use this command to remove PPA.

Step 1: Check the Installed PPAs

First, check which PPAs are installed in our system. To do so, utilize the following command:

$ ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d

The output shows that “ansible” PPA is installed in our system.

Step 2: Remove the PPA Using CLI

The general syntax to remove/delete a PPA command from the system is as follows:

$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:name/here

To remove the “ansible” PPA from the system, execute the following command:

$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ansible/ansible

The error-free output shows that the “ansible” PPA is successfully removed/deleted from the system.

Step 3: Verify the Removal of PPA

To get the list of installed PPAs and verify the removal of “ansible” PPA, run the below command:

$ ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d

Now, the output verifies that no PPA is installed in the system.

Method 1.2: Using the “ppa-purge” Command

The “ppa purge” utility can also be used to remove/uninstall PPA from Ubuntu. Follow the below-stated steps:

Step 1: Install PPA-Purge

To remove a PPA using PPA purge, it’s required to install the PPA-purge package first. Utilize the below-mentioned command to install the ppa-purge:

$ sudo apt install ppa-purge

Step 2: Remove PPA Using PPA-Purge

Now, we can utilize the ppa-purge command to remove/delete any PPA. The general syntax is “sudo ppa-purge ppa:name/name”. To uninstall the “ansible” PPA using ppa-purge, the following command is used:

$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:ansible/ansible

Step 3: Verify the Removal of PPA

To check the list of installed PPAs in the system and verify the successful deletion of the “ansible” PPA, use the following command:

$ ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d

The output shows we have successfully removed/deleted the PPA from the system.

Note: The “.save” file will show a temporary file, but the actual PPA file (“.list”)is deleted.

Method 2: Remove a PPA (GUI Method)

In this section, we will remove a PPA using the GUI approach. To delete a PPA using the GUI method, we will follow the below steps:

Step 1: Open Software & Updates

To check the installed PPAs in the system via GUI, click on “Show Applications” from the Dock panel. It will open a search menu, write “software and updates” in the search bar and open the “Software & Updates” application.

Step 2: Check the PPA

Click on the “Other Software” tab where you will get the list of the PPAs as shown below:

Step 3: Remove the Desired PPA

To remove the desired PPA from the system, first, check the “main” file of the PPA. Now, Select the “main” file of the PPA and click “Remove” to delete the PPA.

Note: To remove the PPA, you must provide the required authentication for the sudo user.

Once you click on “Remove”, it will delete the selected PPA file with its “main (Source Code)” file from the list.

That’s the end of this guide.

Conclusion

To remove or delete a PPA in Ubuntu Linux, we can use the CLI and GUI methods. To remove a PPA using the Command Line, execute the “sudo add-apt-repository –remove ppa:name/name” command or the “sudo ppa-purge ppa:name/name” in the terminal, and for the GUI method, open “Software and Updates”, select the desired PPA and click “Remove”. Moreover, we can delete a PPA using the PPA-purge method utilizingthe “ppa:name/here” command.