Y PPA Repository Manager Hits 0.9.0 Release, Can Install Packages Directly

A few weeks I told you about an application called Y PPA Manager that allows you to manage your Launchpad PPA List (sources.list file) though a GUI interface and some other neat things related to maintaining the software on your system. 

According to Launchpad:

"Y PPA Manager is a tool for easily searching for packages in Ubuntu PPAs as well as perform various PPA actions: add, remove, purge, backup PPAs and more"

If you read the article you'll recall we liked the application for a few really good features it brought t to the table. These mainly were backing up your current software sources, restoring them,  and eliminating duplicate entries.

One of the knocks I've had with Y PPA since using it over the past month was that there was no way to know whether a given repository was already installed or not. Apparently this seemed like a logical thing to the developers as well, since this functionality has been dded to Y PPA of late. Other notable additions and new useful features include:

• new "Install packages" item in the main UI that lets you quickly install packages (if you already know the package names). Separate multiple packages with a space. This python script was contributed by Lorenzo from atareao.es (thank you!)
• when you search for packages in Launchpad PPAs, you can select to install some packages directly from the search results dialog (from the search results dialog, select a PPA and click "List packages", then select some package(s) and click "Install") - if the PPA isn't already added on your system, it will be added and then the selected package(s) will be installed using the new "Install packages" python script mentioned above, that comes with a GUI, so the user can see if any errors occur. This makes it easier and a lot faster to find the package you're looking for, add the PPA and install the package (for an even faster experience, the PPA source is updated using "update-ppa", a feature added in Y PPA Manager 0.0.8.7)
• a new "PPA status" column in the basic search and advanced search results dialog that lets you know if the PPA is already added on your system or not. Feature inspired by PPASC
• Search results dialog: when searching for a package (in deep search only), Y PPA Manager displays its version if it's installed, or it lets you know that the package is not installed.
• "Remove duplicate PPA sources": display which PPA sources are duplicates and also, display which PPA sources are about to be removed
• Other minor changes and fixes, like for instance setting a proper name for the indicator when using HUD

Y PPA as it looks in Kubuntu 12.04

 

Installing or updating Y PPA

Just add ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager within Muon Package Manager and select the package Y-PPA for installation, or type the following into your Konsole terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager

Y PPA is available for all recent versions of Kubuntu, including 12.10, 12.04, 11.10, and 11.04. It should be pointed out that Y PPA is likely for more advanced users, and I certainly would not recommend it for novice Linux users. But for moderate to advanced Kubuntu users looking for a nice tool to help keep the software and it's sources on your system inline, Y PPA is worth a look. 

Source: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/y-ppa-manager-0090-released-with-new.html