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Ashwin Nanjappa
Asked: 2013-01-30 20:28:33 +0800 CST

How to search for source packages?

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I can use aptitude to search for packages using a search term. For example, to search for all packages whose name begins with Foo:

$ aptitude search Foo*

However, this listing does not include source packages (package with source code).

How do I search and list source packages using a search term?

search

2 Answers

  1. Searching: I don't know how to perform a regex search over source package names using apt on the target machine, but one can perform a regex search over source package names by selecting "Source package names" under "Search package directories" at http://packages.ubuntu.com

    Listing: Once you know the source package name 'foo', apt-cache showsrc foo shows the source package records for foo.

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  2. this is what I do (besides what is listed) using unity as a example

    apt-cache policy unity*

    or This is a much larger list that shows you the control files of packages apt-cache show unity*

    Or you can use 'dump' to dump everything (not recommended)

    apt-cache dump unity*

    Or you can use dpkg also like 

    dpkg-query -l | grep unity*

    Or you could use 

    apt-cache showpkg unity*

    Hope this helps

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