Bug#98695: WISHLIST: apt-cache search and Provides:

[Raul Miller <moth@debian.org>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.5.3
Severity: wishlist

apt-cache search should search the "Provides" field, in addition to
the package name.  In part, because of apt's success, we're seeing an
increasing reliance on virtual packages, and it's becoming important to
find virtual packages based on something other than an exact match.

[The particular problem I ran into was: what package(s) would I install
to get a virtual package which had "perlapi" as a part of its name.
When I was eventually told the answer, it was obvious, but `apt-cache
search perlapi` gave me an empty result set.]

Thanks,

-- 
Raul