Fixing add-apt-repository not found error in Linux

When trying to add a PPA in Ubuntu/Debian/Mint, you may get the following error:

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

bash: add-apt-repository: command not found

The add-apt-repository command allows you to add a repository to /etc/apt/sources.list or /etc/apt/sources.list.d or remove an existing PPA. This command is often missing from Linux containers built for Docker or LXD/LXC.

Let’s see how to fix the “add-apt-repository: command not found” error in Ubuntu.

Open a terminal and update the APT repository:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

Install the software-properties-common package:

$ sudo apt install software-properties-common

If a package is already installed but corrupted, it can be reinstalled:

$ sudo apt install --reinstall software-properties-common

Note. You can check the list of files in a package:

$ dpkg -L software-properties-common

Verify that the apt-add-repository command is now available:

$ type apt-add-repository