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 SearchFind 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.