sudo: apt: command not found after performing sudo apt remove gnupg

Question

Before writing the original issue I am facing, I think it'd be best to provide some background.

Background I was trying to register a new source to get packages when running apt-get to finally install azure-iot-sdk-c-dev to use the code to communicate to IoT Hub.

I ran in to issue when tried running the following command.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From the error it seemed that my PI doesn't have dirmngr directory. So I started looking for solutions. One of the solution was to use the following commands

sudo apt remove gnupg

sudo apt install --reinstall gnupg2

sudo apt install dirmngr

Even though I was informed about the potential damage of the first command I assumed performing the second command would fix things up, but the second command is not running.

Issue It is giving me errors like sudo: apt: command not found to fix that I tried the following

sudo apt-get install --reinstall gnupg2

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

But both errors out stating -bash: apt-get: command not found

EDIT 1 After trying sudo aptitude install apt, I get the following, I tried the following afterward

Then manually created preferences

now stuck at update

Answer 1

Removing gnupg should not have affected whether apt and apt-get are installed, though removing some libraries may stop them working correctly.

Possible solutions depend on what you have installed:-

• if you have gdebi, then you can install apt* from the .deb files down-loaded from LaunchPad;
• if you have aptitude or synaptic, you can use one of these to restore apt*;
• otherwise, mount the install disc for the system, then modify PATH to reference the utilities on the install disc;
• if all else fails, boot the install disc and reinstall the OS over the top.

If you use an install disc, make sure you down-load the latest for the release you are running.

There may be other solutions (such as using chroot to address your installed system from a booted install disc), but without understanding how apt* were lost, I am reluctant to suggest more.