Getting info about Packages

Getting information about packages

Finding packages -- apt-cache search

That is how you tell apt to search the packages you've downloaded, using REGEX

NOTE -- apt-cache only knows about the package descriptions you've already downloaded. To search among ALL known Debian packages just browse to http://packages.debian.org/PACKAGESUBSTRING to see what's available. For example: http://packages.debian.org/vnc That would get you a listing of packages that contain the term "vnc" somewhere in the title."

Describing packages -- apt-cache show

That displays what the package is designed to do, version info and so forth.

Listing packages -- dpkg --list

Which packages are installed? Do any packages need configuring?