CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
Matthew
Matthew

Reputation: 29216

How can I append text to /etc/apt/sources.list from the command line?

I am new to linux, and just beginning to learn bash. I am using Ubuntu 9.04, and would like to add repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list from the command line. Basically, I would like to do this:

sudo echo "[some repository]" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

However, even when I use sudo, I get this error:

bash: /etc/apt/sources.list: Permission denied

How do I avoid this error?

Upvotes: 76

Views: 53855

Answers (10)

Shapeshifter
Shapeshifter

Reputation: 560

If you were to switch to the root user the same command will work just fine. This is because sudo elevates the priveleges only for the [echo] command and does not elevate the right side of the output redirection.

sudo su
echo "[some repository]" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

If you do it this way be sure to exit from su so that you are not running unnecessary programs as root (superuser)

Upvotes: -1

metaorior
metaorior

Reputation: 1

interesting, 1- remove the file with rm , 2 create the file again with touch, 3 use printf to print formatted, 4 pipe with tee to the file(THIS IS FOR DEBIAN) replace to your tastes and likes

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo touch /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo chmod +rwx /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo printf "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

Upvotes: -2

Neil Mayhew
Neil Mayhew

Reputation: 14937

It's better to use a separate file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d rather than modifying /etc/apt/sources.list, as explained in this other answer. (Note that the file name MUST end in .list or it will be ignored.)

However, if you want to create it using echo the issue with permissions remains. You can use tee to create it like this:

echo '[some repository]' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/some-repository.list >/dev/null

or like this:

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/some-repository.list >/dev/null <<EOF
[some repository]
EOF

Note that you don't need -a on the tee command (because you're not appending).

You can also create the file somewhere else and then copy it into place with:

sudo cp path/to/some-repository.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

Upvotes: 10

Jihad Ismail
Jihad Ismail

Reputation: 1

first open or create the file you want to edit it by the following command

1- sudo nano file_name

2- edit the file after it opens

3- ctrl+x

4- press 'Y' to say yes

and you are done.

Upvotes: -2

lothar
lothar

Reputation: 20237

echo "[some repository]" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

The tee command is called as the superuser via sudo and the -a argument tells tee to append to the file instead of overwriting it.

Your original command failed, as the IO redirection with >> will be done as the regular user, only your echo was executed with sudo.

Calling a sudo subshell like

sudo sh -c 'echo "[some repository]" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'

works, too as pointed out by others.

Upvotes: 142

kenorb
kenorb

Reputation: 166717

Here is solution without using piping, just simple in-place editing:

sudo ex +'$put = \"[some repository]\"' -cwq /etc/apt/sources.list

The ex is equivalent to vi -e.

Upvotes: 0

Salil
Salil

Reputation: 47512

Following works for me 

sudo echo "deb http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/ubuntu-upstart dist 10gen" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/10gen.list

Upvotes: 3

Matthew
Matthew

Reputation: 29216

In Karmic, you can just use the add-apt-repository command, at least for PPAs.

For example:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:docky

Upvotes: 1

araqnid
araqnid

Reputation: 133692

The shell processes ">", "<", ">>" etc itself before launching commands. So the problem is that "sudo >> /etc/foo" tries to open /etc/foo for append before gaining privileges.

One way round this is to use sudo to launch another shell to do what you want, e.g.:

sudo sh -c 'echo "[some repository]" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'

Or alternatively:

echo "[some repository]" | sudo sh -c 'cat >> /etc/apt/sources.list'

A simpler approach may simply be to use sudo to launch an editor on the /etc/file :)

Upvotes: 9

Greg Hewgill
Greg Hewgill

Reputation: 994001

One way to solve this is to do the redirection in a subshell:

sudo sh -c 'echo "[some repository]" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'

That way, the sh process is executed under sudo and therefore has the necessary privileges to open the redirected output to /etc/apt/sources.list.

Upvotes: 3

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