[bluebarbet]

In Debian-Ubuntu it's become a standard pattern to use `curl` or `wget` to add a third-party `deb` repo with keychain integration, because for whatever reason there's still no `apt` command for this obvious scenario. Really grinds my gears.

[chuckadams]

Doesn't apt-add-repository do all that?

[bluebarbet]

For whatever reason, nobody seems to use it. It must be a good reason or else they would. [PS: It's because it doesn't add the signing keys and maybe also because it's too associated with Ubuntu.] This, for example, is the official way to add Mozilla's repo:

  echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list > /dev/null

And here's Signal's instructions:

  # 1. Install our official public software signing key:
  wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg; cat signal-desktop-keyring.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
  
  # 2. Add our repository to your list of repositories:
  wget -O signal-desktop.sources https://updates.signal.org/static/desktop/apt/signal-desktop.sources; cat signal-desktop.sources | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-desktop.sources > /dev/null
  
  # 3. Update your package database and install Signal:
  sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

Bonkers.

[thewebguyd]

I believe apt-add-repository started out as Ubuntu specific for their PPA system, didn't it? It's part of the software-properties-common package.

When using it without a PPA (just giving in the repo URL) it won't add the key by default, so you have to follow it up with the wget -qO- https:/mykey.asc | sudo apt-key add - (<< don't to this, apt-key add will add the key to the global trust)

early days apt-add-repository also didn't support signed-by for the signing keys. Very early on when you added some PPA, it'd add the repo's GPG key to the global keyring, so you were better off not using it anyway.

[hoherd]

That is not a "userspace package manager" though. That still requires root.