Ubuntu – How to search for available packages from the command-line

aptcommand line

I have successfully installed some packages using the command line 'sudo apt-get install packagename' when I have known in advance that those packages are available. But how can I search for or get a list of what is available in the repositories?

Best Answer

To search for a particular package by name or description:

From the command-line, use:

apt-cache search keyword

where the search keyword can be all or part of a package name or any words used in its description.

For example, apt-cache search proxy includes both these packages:

tinyproxy - A lightweight, non-caching, optionally anonymizing HTTP proxy
tircd - ircd proxy to the twitter API

Note: the list may be long, so you can pipe the output to less to make it scrollable one line or one screen at a time, i.e. apt-cache search something | less.

To get a list of ALL packages

apt-cache search .

Use Synaptic if you have X-forwarding enabled or are on a desktop

Synaptic is often a more convenient way to do this, but requires at least an X server on your end (unless you're running a desktop environment). Install with sudo apt-get install synaptic if necessary.

Synaptic on ssh'd server via X forwarding:
Synaptic running locally on Ubuntu Desktop:

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to list all the packages which are installed from PPAs

The following command returns the package name and its ppa (if installed from a ppa):

apt-cache policy $(dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall$ | awk '{ print $1 }') | perl -e '@a = <>; $a=join("", @a); $a =~ s/\n(\S)/\n\n$1/g;  @packages = split("\n\n", $a); foreach $p (@packages) {print "$1: $2\n" if $p =~ /^(.*?):.*?500 http:\/\/ppa\.launchpad\.net\/(.*?)\s/s}'

Details:

dpkg --get-selections gives only the installed packages after grep -v deinstall$
awk '{ print $1 }' returns only the package name
perl -e '@a = <>; $a=join("", @a)' concatenates all the lines returned by apt-cache policy
$a =~ s/\n(\S)/\n\n$1/g; adds a newline between each package section
@packages = split("\n\n", $a); is a perl array containing all the packages infos, one package per item.
foreach $p (@packages) {print "$1: $2\n" if $p =~ /^(.*?):.*?500 http:\/\/ppa\.launchpad\.net\/(.*?)\s/s} is a loop where the package and the ppa are printed if a ppa with prio 500 is found in the policy.

Ubuntu – How to find the list of all available packages along with the lastest version number available in the repositories

apt-cache policy '.*' displays detailed version information for all packages.

If you want a more compact output with one line per package, you can use aptitude. The following command lists available versions (see the manual for output format specifications) for all packages except cross-architecture ones (e.g. 32-bit packages on a 64-bit system) (see the manual for search patterns):

aptitude search -F '%54p %24V' '~rnative'