In all Linux distributions like Ubuntu, the system consists of several repositories and PPA. These repositories and PPAs contain various packages/files and the information about the installed software and tools on the system. Finding the list of all these installed repositories and PPAs is impossible without a terminal command.

If you want to list the installed PPAs and repositories on the Ubuntu system, you should follow this guide.

However, before getting the list of repositories and PPAs, it is better to get acquainted with repositories and PPAs.

What are repositories and PPAs in Ubuntu

All Ubuntu distributions have four types of repositories:

• • Restricted: Those only accessible to device drivers.
  • universe: Open source software available to everyone and free of charge.
  • Primarily: Open source software supported by Canonical.
  • multiverse: The restricted software that has copyrights.

PPAs (Personal Package archive) are a special type of repository, by using PPAs it is also possible to install software/tools that are not present in the official Ubuntu repository. PPAs are beneficial when a new version of a specific software/package is installed and that version is not immediately available in the official repository. To install the latest package, PPA can be used.

How to list all installed PPAs and repositories in Ubuntu

To get the list of all installed repositories and PPAs on Ubuntu, there are several commands that can be used:

command 1

The first command to view the list of installed repositories and PPAs in Ubuntu is to use the grep command, which contains the Sources.List File containing the installed repositories and PPAs on the Ubuntu system.

This command will display a full list of installed repositories and PPAs on your Ubuntu system on the terminal:

command 2

The other command on our list is the apt-cache command, this command is better as it shows more information about the installed repositories:

In the output, you can see the list of installed repositories is displayed with the detailed information about each repository.

command 3

This command is very similar to the previous command, just a little shorter, run the simple command appropriate policy Command to show the list of installed repositories and PPAs on Ubuntu:

Get a list of all installed repositories and PPAs on Ubuntu via GUI

The Ubuntu users can also check the list of installed repositories and PPAs on the Ubuntu system “Software and Updates” Tool that can be opened from the application menu.

However, the GUI does not allow you to view a detailed list of all installed repositories and PPAs on the Ubuntu system.

Diploma

There are three useful terminal commands to get the list of installed repositories and PPAs on Ubuntu. All these commands are useful to get a detailed list of installed repositories and PPAs. There is also a GUI based method called “Software Update” Tool that can be opened from the application menu to get the list of installed repositories and PPAs on Ubuntu. However, this method does not provide detailed information about installation repositories and PPAs compared to terminal commands.