Don't install from the official repositories unless you want version 1.19 from 2014 (current version is 1.21 from 2016):
# apt install ddrescue
...
E: Unable to locate package ddrescue
# apt install gddrescue
...
Setting up gddrescue (1.19-1) ...
(Note that while the repositories refer to it as "gddrescue", it is invoked via "ddrescue" once installed.)
If you decide to compile from source, you may need Lzip to extract the contents from the ddrescue archive.
If you receive an error like this one while running make:
c++ -W -O2 -c -o arg_parser.o arg_parser.cc
make: c++: Command not found
Makefile:64: recipe for target 'arg_parser.o' failed
make: *** [arg_parser.o] Error 127
you need to install build-essential first:
# apt install build-essential
The rest is straightforward:
$ lzip -d ddrescue-1.21.tar.lz && tar xvf ddrescue-1.21.tar && cd ddrescue-1.21 && ./configure && make
/nix | Sep 30, 2016