Bug#600010: apt-cache search seems not to search the Package name

[David Kalnischkies <kalnischkies+debian@gmail.com>]

retitle 600010 document that apt-cache search operates only on candidates
severity 600010 wishlist
thanks

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 21:07, Willi Mann <willi@wm1.at> wrote:
> I discovered this when searching for the new rc6 kernel in experimental. A search
> for the package name (or parts of it) returns no result despite the package being
> available as shown by a-c policy:
>
> # apt-cache search linux-image 2.6.36
> # apt-cache search linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64
> # apt-cache policy linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64
> linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64:
>  Installiert: (keine)
>  Kandidat:    (keine)
>  Versionstabelle:
>     2.6.36~rc6-1~experimental.1 0
>        -10 http://127.0.0.1/ftp.at.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main amd64 Packages


You have pinned all versions of this package below zero so,
as policy tells you, this package has no candidate:

What can't be installed isn't really useful as a search result,
so APT doesn't include the package in the result list - expected behavior.
(a quick look suggests that it is nowhere documented that apt-cache search
 only does searching in candidate versions)

You might want to pin to 1 instead of -10 (which is the default
for experimental), so APT can choose this experimental version
as candidate for this package (as no other "better" archive provides
a version of this package) and can therefore include it in search results…


Best regards

David Kalnischkies