show searched packages including versions

[Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net>]

I've had no luck finding a way to search in Debian that lists versions along
with names. In openSUSE, this is somewhat simple to discover, as zypper includes
everything in one man page rather than having various names to learn along with
separate (or not) man pages, such as apt-cache, apt-get, apt-mark, apt-file,
apt-key, aptitude and dpkg. Generally my searches are seeking whether newer
version is yet available. ATM, the goal is finding whether mc-4.8.17 or older
can readily be replaced by the current version, mc-4.8.20. Output I would like
in a form similar to what follows (from openSUSE):

# zypper se -sx firefox-esr

S  | Name        | Type       | Version      | Arch   | Repository
---+-------------+------------+--------------+--------+--------------
vl | firefox-esr | package    | 52.5.3-1.1   | i586   | Mozilla131
vl | firefox-esr | package    | 45.8.0-1.3   | i586   | MozillaLegacy
vl | firefox-esr | package    | 38.8.0-1.22  | i586   | MozillaLegacy
vl | firefox-esr | package    | 31.8.0-1.30  | i586   | MozillaLegacy
vl | firefox-esr | package    | 17.0.11-1.49 | i586   | MozillaLegacy
vl | firefox-esr | package    | 52.5.3-1.1   | i586   | Mozilla

Even better would show packages sorted first by version and skipping arch.

Can any similar output be provided in Debian? If yes, is there a config option
to make it default?
-- 
"Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Whatever else you
get, get wisdom." Proverbs 4:7 (New Living Translation)

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/