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How to enable or disable -updates, -security, -backports, -proposed repositories from commandline?

rated 0 times [ 5] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 3187 / 2 Years ago, mon, september 19, 2022, 2:57:31

Let's assume that we are using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver).

I know GUI ways to enable or disable the following repositories:

Important security updates (bionic-security)

Recommended updates (bionic-updates)

Pre-released updates (bionic-proposed)

Unsupported updates (bionic-backports)

In KDE user may want to open Software & Updates (or software-properties-kde) and navigate to Updates tab.

In GNOME, MATE, Xfce user should open Software & Updates (or software-properties-gtk) and navigate to Updates tab for -security, -updates and -backports and Developer options tab for -proposed.

But how to enable or disable -updates, -security, -backports, -proposed repositories from commandline?

Note: I need a solution without direct editing of /etc/apt/sources.list.

Update: I created discussion and poll named "Does Ubuntu need console alternative for software-properties-gtk / software-properties-kde?" on community.ubuntu.com.

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iriousutur

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4 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago taigysel · Accepted Answer

Note: I need a solution without direct editing of /etc/apt/sources.list.

Would using find and sed to comment out the lines be considered direct editing?

To disable these lines:

find /etc/apt -type f -name '*.list' -exec sed -i 's/(^deb.*-backports.*)/#1/; s/(^deb.*-updates.*)/#1/; s/(^deb.*-proposed.*)/#1/; s/(^deb.*-security.*)/#1/' {} +

Alternatively, we can just delete them:

find /etc/apt -type f -name '*.list' -exec sed -i '/-backports/d; /-updates/d; /-proposed/d; /-security/d' {} +

To enable them again:

find /etc/apt -type f -name '*.list' -exec sed -i 's/^#(deb.*-backports.*)/1/; s/^#(deb.*-updates.*)/1/; s/^#(deb.*-proposed.*)/1/; s/^#(deb.*-security.*)/1/' {} +