[Qgis-user] What's python-software-properties necessary for?

[Vincent Picavet]

Hello,

> I've been going through our installation instructions on the wiki:
> http://hub.qgis.org/projects/quantum-gis/wiki/Download#262-With-updated-dep
> endencies
> 
> There is one thing I don't quite understand: Only if I want to install
> QGIS with updated dependencies, the instructions tell me to install
> python-software-properties:
> 
> sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
> 
> It's not mentioned anywhere else. What's this package good for? Is it
> necessary? Why does it seem to be only necessary for installing the
> QGIS release from ubuntugis-unstable but not with any other source?

This package provides the add-apt-repository binary, which you will need to 
install a new ppa easily, e.g. ubuntugis.

If you want the stock qgis version from official debian/ubuntu repositories, you 
do not need to add any ppa, hence no python-software-properties package 
needed.

Vincent