Error: 'deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \ xenial \ stable' invalid

Question

I was following instructions (https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/#install-docker-ce-1) to try install Docker CE on VirtualBox running Ubuntu 16.04.3. Then when I tried to set up the stable repository on step 4 by doing:

sudo add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"

I got

Error: 'deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \ xenial \ stable' invalid

Can someone please help? I am new to programming but online search doesn't appear to show anything directly relevant.

Solution 1

That command is incorrectly line-wrapped which introduces line breaks and backslash characters where there should be none. The correct command would be:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable"

However, you still need to find and remove the previously added bogus entries. One way to find the files is via grep:

grep -ne '^deb.*docker.*\\' /etc/apt/sources.list{,.d/*.list}

I assume you know how to edit or remove files owned by root.

Solution 2

check the file at /etc/apt/sources.list. The repo line should read:

deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu xenial stable

Note the lack of backslash. You will need root privileges in order to edit this file if it is incorrect.

Comments

[Redscarfs]

Corrected, THX!

[Redscarfs]

I started a new virtual machine and its now working!

[LUser]

Sad there is actually a question on this.

[Zanna]

There is nothing in the quoted portion that would be treated differently with the different quotes. Perhaps when you used double quotes they were not standard double quotes, but fancy ones (i.e. a different unicode character) copy-pasted from somewhere?