Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1293115
In Process
engr_john
Asked: 2020-11-18 09:58:09 +0800 CST

How to find /etc/apt/sources.conf file

  • 772

I am wondering how to find the /etc/apt/sources.conf filein Ubuntu 16.04.4 terminal ? It should contains URLs to archive.ubuntu.com.

16.04

2 Answers

  1. The file is just /etc/apt/sources.list. The file part is just referring to the file that it just mentions, which is /etc/apt/sources.list

    • 1

  2. My favorite way to do this is by traversing the directory structure. To move up a level in the directory, it's ../.

    You want to go all the way to the filesystem root to get to /etc. So, that's up two levels of directories - assuming you started in your /home/user directory.

    So, let's say I want to edit the file you probably meant to mention - sources.list. My command would look like:

    sudo nano ../../etc/apt/sources.list

    The sudo is, of course, to elevate my permissions. The 'nano' is a text editor that you can use in the terminal - and it's easy to learn to use. Then, the following is the path to the file.

    As you see in the path, I went up two levels, each with a ../. That takes me to the filesystems root (not to be confused with root user) which is just plain /. Once it takes me there, it then digs down into the directories and opens the file in question.

    If, for some reason, you were in your Downloads folder (under your /home/user directory) then it'd be:

    sudo nano ../../../etc/apt/sources.list

    It's pretty easy this way, so long as you know where you are in the directory structure.

    • 0