Re: How to 'apt-cache search'&'apt-file search' by distribut

[dircha <dircha@dircha.com>]

David Clymer wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-04-18 at 13:57, users@linuxforums.org wrote:
>
> > What arguement should I use with 'apt-cache search' and 'apt-file
> > search' to specific the distribution?
> >
> > Eg. If I want to search for source packages (or normal packages) in
> > unstable distribution, what would the complete command for 'apt-cache
> > search' and 'apt-file search'?
> AFAIK, you cant restrict your apt-cache search by branch. I think it
> just searches all package lists fetched from the sources in your
> /etc/apt/sources.list. However, if you know the package name, you can
> use apt-cache policy <package name> to see a list of all available
> packages (from all branches) with the specified name along with their
> versions, apt-get sources, and installation status. 

aptitude allows you to do this. Used as a command line tool (rather than 
in curses-gui mode) I find it to be a welcome improvement over apt-get 
for most uses.

Following is a simple form to do what you want:

'aptitude search ~Astable~n<search-term>'

or, 'aptitude search ~Astable~d<search-term>'

~A<archive-to-search>
~n<term-in-name>
~d<term-in-description>

Read /usr/share/doc/aptitude/README for the full list of available 
search modifiers.

dircha