Apt-cache search is a fairly known tool to search packages for your Ubuntu system. It collects information about available packages in the repositories for installation.
Nevertheless, a less known tool is axi-cache search. More verbose than apt-cache, this neat tool gives you more details about the packages you might be looking for. In the below example I search gtk+2.0 using axi-cache search.
For a more detailed information and comparison between apt-cache and axi-cache, you can visit the Debian Administrator’s Handbook and share your own experience in the comments.
Usage: axi-cache search <package-name>
$ axi-cache search gtk+2.0
23 results found.
Results 1-20:
100% gtk-chtheme - GTK+ 2.0 theme changer and previewer utility
93% libhippocanvas-1-0 - a GTK+2.0 canvas library
93% libhippocanvas-dev - a GTK+2.0 canvas library
88% bitstormlite - BitTorrent Client based on C++/Gtk+2.0
79% libcaribou-gtk-module - Configurable on screen keyboard with scanning mode (GTK+ 2.0 module)
79% pike7.8-gtk - GTK+ 2.0 module for Pike
76% gtk2-engines-wonderland - Wonderland theme for GTK+-2.0
75% gir1.2-gtk-vnc-2.0 - GObject introspection data for GTK-VNC.
71% libgtksourceview2-2.0-cil - CLI binding for GtkSourceView 2.2
70% libgtk-vnc-2.0-0 - VNC viewer widget for GTK+3 (runtime libraries)
67% uim-gtk2.0 - Universal Input Method - GTK+2.x front end
66% libgtk-vnc-2.0-0-dbg - VNC viewer widget for GTK+3 (debugging symbols)
66% libspice-client-gtk-2.0-dev - GTK2 widget for SPICE clients (development files)
65% libgtk-vnc-2.0-dev - VNC viewer widget for GTK+3 (development files)
65% libspice-client-gtk-2.0-4 - GTK2 widget for SPICE clients (runtime library)
65% gir1.2-spice-client-gtk-2.0 - GTK2 widget for SPICE clients (GObject-Introspection)
64% python-hippocanvas - Python bindings to hippo-canvas
54% libgnome2-vfs-perl - Perl interface to the 2.x series of the GNOME VFS library
50% gir1.2-gtk-2.0 - GTK+ graphical user interface library -- gir bindings
49% libgnome2-perl - Perl interface to the GNOME libraries
Did you mean: gtk++1.0 ?
More terms: gtk2 this hippo widget mugshot canvas libspice
More tags:
`axi-cache more' will give more results
Ubuntu, Debian and Alpine 