Find Packages Available for Download for Debian


apt-cache search

We've been talking a lot about installing software using apt, but how do you know what software packages are available in the first place? There's another tool in the apt toolbox that helps you do that: apt-cache search, which searches the lists of packages available in your apt repositories. In a nice change of pace, you don't need to be root at all to use apt-cache search.

$ apt-cache search dvdcss libdvdread3 - Simple foundation for reading DVDs ogle - DVD player with support for DVD menus libdvdcss2 - portable library for DVD decryption libdvdcss2-dev - development files for libdvdcss2 


Keep in mind several things about how this command searches. It looks for matches to your stringin this case, dvdcssand not for exact words. Also, your search pattern might appear in the package name or description. Finally, apt-cache search looks through the entire package list of both installed and uninstalled packages, so you might already have installed a package that shows up.

Tip

Synaptic is a GUI for apt that allows you to do virtually everything discussed here, but via point-and-click instead of typing. In particular, its search tools are very nice, so much so that I usually use Synaptic solely for searching, and do everything else via the command line. That seems to maximize the effectiveness of each tool best.




Linux Phrasebook
Linux Phrasebook
ISBN: 0672328380
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 288

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