How to find out which versions of a package can I install on APT

Using APT, you can install a specific version of a package using:

apt-get install package=1.0

But you can't do

apt-get install package=1.*

So, how can I find out which versions are avaliable for package on a specific repository, or in all repositories in my /etc/apt/sources.list?

Solution 1:

Just as an addendum

apt-cache madison <<package name>>

will list the versions available from all your sources.

apt-cache madison vim
   vim | 2:7.3.547-1 | http://debian.mirrors.tds.net/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
   vim | 2:7.3.429-2 | http://debian.mirrors.tds.net/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
   vim | 2:7.3.429-2 | http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
   vim | 2:7.3.429-2 | http://debian.mirrors.tds.net/debian/ testing/main Sources
   vim | 2:7.3.547-1 | http://debian.mirrors.tds.net/debian/ unstable/main Sources

madison is an apt-cache subcommand, man apt-cache says:

apt-cache's madison command attempts to mimic the output format and a subset of the functionality of the Debian archive management tool, madison. It displays available versions of a package in a tabular format. Unlike the original madison, it can only display information for the architecture for which APT has retrieved package lists (APT::Architecture).

Solution 2:

The apt-cache show <Package> shows the package descriptions of all the versions your debian installation can install (i.e. from cached list of packages available from the repos listed in sources.list). So I guess you could try something like (for e.g.):

# apt-cache show package | grep Version
Version 1.0
Version 0.9-2squeeze1

The apt-cache show would give you much more info than just versions.

Solution 3:

apt-cache policy gdb

Sample output:

gdb:
  Installed: 7.7.1-0ubuntu5~14.04.2
  Candidate: 7.7.1-0ubuntu5~14.04.2
  Version table:
 *** 7.7.1-0ubuntu5~14.04.2 0
        500 http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     7.7-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages

So we see that there are two versions of GDB available:

• 7.7.1-0ubuntu5~14.04.2
• 7.7-0ubuntu3

Meaning of the output:

• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/121413/understanding-the-output-of-apt-cache-policy
• https://askubuntu.com/questions/282602/what-do-the-numbers-in-the-output-of-apt-cache-policy-tell-us

Solution 4:

A command that is specifically intended for this is apt-show-versions. You often have to install it, but then can run apt-show-versions -a and it will show you the version number, the distribution (i.e. testing, stable, unstable, backports, etc.) where that can be found, and finally tell you if the version you have installed is up to date or not.

It does not give you as much information as apt-cache, but gives you pretty much what you need, as you can then install from the correct repository (using aptitude / apt-get -t) or simply install using the correct version number in the form you noted.