Does Ubuntu have Package X? September 28, 2005
Posted by Carthik in ubuntu.trackback
One of the coolest ways to check if the ubuntu repositories has the package you want is to use the http://packages.ubuntu.com website. The main page has a search tool too, but that is not what this post here is about.
You can type a url like http://packages.ubuntu.com/<package-name> to find out details about the package with name <package-name>. In simpler terms, say I wanted to find if WordPress (the thingy used to power this blog) is available for Ubuntu, I would type in:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/wordpress into my browser, and be taken to a page with information regarding the versions of WordPress found in various releases, complete with version numbers, and the component of the repository in which they can be found (“universe”, for example). The results of the search are as follows:
Package Search Results
You have searched for packages named wordpress in all distributions, all sections, and all architectures.
Found 1 matching packages, displaying package 1.
Package wordpress* warty (web): a semantic personal publishing platform or weblog manager [universe]
1.0.2-1: all
* hoary (web): a semantic personal publishing platform or weblog manager [universe]
1.2.2-1.1: all
* breezy (web): an award winning weblog manager [universe]
1.5.2-1: all
Rejoice!
Addendum: Pascal tells us that, on the freenode servers chat channel #ubuntu, which is the official support and discussion room on IRC for ubuntu, if you type:
!info app
Then the bot ubotu will provide you with the same details regard the “app”.
Thanks, Pascal.
Technorati Profile
Ubuntu Blog 
You might also like to add that when on the freenode servers in #ubuntu, if you type:
!info app
You ubotu will nicely inform you about it. For example, I typed “!info wordpress”:
wordpress: (a semantic personal publishing platform or weblog manager), section universe/web, is optional. Version: 1.2.2-1.1 (hoary), Packaged size: 233 kB, Installed size: 1392 kB
Cheers,
Pascal
This is just too good to be true! I’ve been flirting with Ubuntu – the only thing I was worried was about Palm Sync and Palm Desktop, but I think I found a solution.
BTW, great blog, Pascal. I really want to leave Windows before Vista hits the fan.
This blog will help me a lot for sure. Congrats,
Ricardo
Thanks Pascal, I have edited the post to include the very useful information.
Hey, no worries.
Regards,
Pascal
Another great way to search for Ubuntu (and Debain) packages is to add the search engine inside of Firefox. In the search box, click on the arrow, and go down to Add Engines… When you get there, search for the ‘Ubuntu’ or ‘Debian’ plugin and you will be able to search from within Firefox. Nice, eh?
ubotu: I have learnt through error that you should message ubotu directly for if trying to answer your own question.
/msg ubotu info [app]
The ! syntax is meant to help answer other people’s problems.
You might also like to add that when on the freenode servers in #ubuntu, if you type: