How to automatically find the 'freshest' PPA for a given package?

Solution 1:

The answer my be divided in three parts:

1. Search for specific Ubuntu codename is not implemented, but already reported to LaunchPad as bug 1820387, search for package version is not implemented, you have to report such bug by yourself.

2. Search on local machine maybe done by Y PPA Manager as follows

   • Install it first by

     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager
     

   • then run search using its GUI or by commandline y-ppa-search then specify package name i3-gaps to get something like shown below, sort by Version column:

     Search result for 18.04 LTS

     and then optionally add PPA with highest version by click on Add Selected PPA button, then install newest package by sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.

3. Search on local machine also maybe done by user-created python script named pyppasearch as follows

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install python3-requests python3-bs4 python3-launchpadlib
   
   cd ~/Downloads
   wget -c https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anenasa/pyppasearch/main/pyppasearch.py
   chmod +x pyppasearch.py
   

   Then we can run search using below command:

   ./pyppasearch.py -c bionic -a amd64 i3-gaps
   

   to get results like shown below:

   i3-gaps 4.17.1-1ubuntu1~ppa5 ppa:regolith-linux/experimental Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.18.2-1~regolith2 ppa:rynojvr/ppa Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.17.1-1ubuntu1~ppa4 ppa:kgilmer/regolith-unstable Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.17.1-1ubuntu1~ppa5 ppa:regolith-linux/regolith-1.4.1 Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.17.1-1ubuntu1~ppa5 ppa:regolith-linux/r1.3 Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.19.1-1ubuntu1 ppa:regolith-linux/release Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.19.1-1ubuntu1 ppa:regolith-linux/stable Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.19.1-1ubuntu1 ppa:regolith-linux/unstable Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.17.1-1ubuntu1~ppa5 ppa:a-weller/regolithtest Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.18.2-1~regolith2 ppa:kgilmer/speed-ricer Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.17.1-1ubuntu1~ppa4 ppa:kgilmer/regolith-stable Bionic (amd64)
   i3-gaps 4.17.1-0york0~18.04 ppa:jonathonf/i3 Bionic (amd64)
   Search is finished.
   

   They are absolutely equal to those from Y PPA Manager, the differences are in the order of appearance.