6.4.2 Information on a package
Search and display information from package archives. Make sure to point APT
to the proper archive(s) by editing /etc/apt/sources.list. If you
want to see how packages in testing/unstable do
against the currently installed one, use apt-cache
policy—quite nice.
# apt-get check # update cache and check for broken packages
$ apt-cache search pattern # search package from text description
$ apt-cache policy package # package priority/dists information
$ apt-cache show -a package # show description of package in all dists
$ apt-cache showsrc package # show description of matching source package
$ apt-cache showpkg package # package information for debugging
# dpkg --audit|-C # search for partially installed packages
$ dpkg {-s|--status} package ... # description of installed package
$ dpkg -l package ... # status of installed package (1 line each)
$ dpkg -L package ... # list filenames installed by the package
apt-cache showsrc is not documented as of the Woody release but
works :)
You can also find package information in (I use mc to browse
these):
/var/lib/apt/lists/*
/var/lib/dpkg/available
The comparison of the following files provides information on what exactly has
happened in the last few install sessions.
/var/lib/dpkg/status
/var/backups/dpkg.status*
