Ubuntu – Search Launchpad for PPAs matching software or package name

Searching: I don't know how to perform a regex search over source package names using apt on the target machine, but one can perform a regex search over source package names by selecting "Source package names" under "Search package directories" at http://packages.ubuntu.com

Listing: Once you know the source package name 'foo', apt-cache showsrc foo shows the source package records for foo.

Finding all PPAs

There is no API to do this and there probably won't be as you are not supposed to ask for huge collections of objects via the Python APIs.

Finding all PPAs with a certain name

AFAIK it is not possible. Report a feature request on https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpadlib.

Finding all PPAs owned by a user with a given name

This is possible, use launchpad.people['username'].ppas, full example:

python
>>> from launchpadlib.launchpad import Launchpad
>>> launchpad = Launchpad.login_anonymously('just testing', 'production', '/home/user/tmp')
>>> [ ppa.name for ppa in launchpad.people['mvo'].ppas ]
[u'apt-clone-lucid', u'apt-fix-633967', u'apt-ftparchive-arch', u'apt-ftparchive-lucid', u'apt-ftparchive-srccache-backport', u'apt-gcc5', u'apt-https-fix', u'apt-lucid-chris', u'apt-precise', u'apt-src-ftparchive', u'apt-vivid', u'auto-upgrade-tester', u'debsigs-trusty', u'eglibc-trusty', u'freeglut-multiarch', u'gir-multiarch', u'hwe-eol', u'linux-firmware-nonfree', u'lp1347721', u'lp1371058', u'lucid-precise-upgrades', u'lucid-precise-upgrades2', u'oem', u'openoffice', u'ppa', u'public-test', u'python-apt', u'release-upgrader-apt', u'samba4', u'sdk', u'smem', u'synaptic', u'test-dependencies', u'ubuntu-sdk-libs', u'unattended-upgrades', u'upgrade-tests', u'wine', u'wsmancli']

You might think that you can combine this with searching people, but it will not work. There is a limit on how many people you can get (I think it is 50 or something like that).

The entire API is documented here: https://launchpad.net/+apidoc/1.0.html