Newbie Guide: How to Use PPA Purge

Have you ever upgraded an application via PPA that makes trouble? For example, upgrading Firefox that causes add-ons incompatibility and you want to have your "old" version back? If so, you are in the right place. Today, I'd like to write a post intended for newbie in Linux on how to use PPA Purge. What is PPA Purge? It's an application which lets you to downgrade your installed application to its "original" version from Ubuntu repository. It is like a first-aid-kit when you are going mad encountering many problems after upgrading application from PPA Launchpad.

Installing on Ubuntu
PPA Purge is available in official Ubuntu repository, so you can install it by typing the following command:

• sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

How To Use PPA Purge
For example, you've upgraded Mozilla Thunderbird from PPA with this command:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/thunderbird-next

To downgrade Mozilla Thunderbird from the above PPA, you should run this command:

• sudo ppa-purge ppa:mozillateam/thunderbird-next

PPA Purge will automatically remove Mozilla Thunderbird which is installed from PPA and then install the "original" version of Mozilla Thunderbird from Ubuntu repository.

"Unfortunately, I forget what PPA I've used to install the app?" Well, you should make use of "history" command on Terminal combined with "grep" function. Here's the example:

• history | grep add-apt-repository

The output of the above command is shown below

Now you have a comprehensive list of  "add-apt-repository" commands you've typed on Terminal. They can help you to remember what PPA you've used to install certain application.

Regards :)