Ubuntu – Where to find older source&binary package versions

package-management

I know that when a package update appears in the repository, its older version disappears from there. But what if new version has a regression? Where can I find previous ones?

Note: I don't mean package from older distro release or anything like that. I mean the version directly preceding current, e.g. if wine-1.5.29 is current, I need wine-1.5.28 and maybe earlier ones. Of course, wine is a bad example since I can find any version on their website, but this isn't the case for all packages.

Searching in /var/cache/apt/archives is not an option because it may be occasionally cleaned by apt-get clean.

Best Answer

Ubuntu uses Launchpad to host all its packages specifically here:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu

From here you can find the source code to any package simply by searching

For example by searching for for acpid you are taken here

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpid

from here you can View the full publishing history, or View full change log to find all releases and select the one you want.

In many cases you will also be able to find binaries. However I have seen examples where the binaries are missing. I'm not sure why but I presume this is when the main truck has changed more than once between Ubuntu releases.

The developer may have updated the source from upstream project for the first upstream change, tested it and published the source then immediately updated the with the second update and published again with the current upstream release.

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