Chapter 3. aptitude frequently asked questions

 

“What ... is your name?”

“I am Arthur, King of the Britons.”

“What ... is your quest?”

“I seek the Holy Grail!”

“What ... is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”

“What do you mean? An African or a European swallow?”

“Huh? I ... I don't kn---AAAAAUUUGGGHH!”

 
 -- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3.1. How can I find exactly one package by name?
3.2. How can I find broken packages?
3.3. I want to select text, why doesn't aptitude let me disable the mouse?

3.1.

How can I find exactly one package by name?

As mentioned in the section called “Search patterns”, when you search for a package by name, the text you enter is actually a regular expression. Thus, the search pattern “^name$” will match only a package named name.

For instance, you can find apt (but not aptitude or synaptic) by entering ^apt$; you can find g++ (but not g++-2.95 or g++-3.0) by entering ^g\+\+$.

3.2.

How can I find broken packages?

Use the command Search → Find Broken (b).

3.3.

I want to select text, why doesn't aptitude let me disable the mouse?

Normally, you cannot select text in an xterm while a program running in that terminal (such as aptitude) is using the mouse. However, you can override this behavior and perform a selection by holding the Shift key down while you click on the terminal.