How to find out what packages are available?

[Peter Garrett]

On Sat, 2 Jun 2007 09:24:57 -0400
"Jan Sneep" <jan at azureservices.ca> wrote:

> I'm trying to get a copy of a workers.properties file, that is suppsed to
> exist on the "official mod_jk website", and I'm not sure from all the sites
> that Google shows which is the OFFICAL site, but did manage to find a page
> that recommends installing the mod-jk connector for official packages for my
> distribution ... which leads to the question ...
> 
> How can I find out what offical Ubuntu packages are available?

apt-cache search <keywords here>
apt-cache policy <packagename>  to see which repository it is from (and
other info)
apt-cache show <packagename>  for a description of "packagename"

For example:

$ apt-cache search  mod-jk
libapache-mod-jk - Apache 1.3 connector for the Tomcat Java servlet engine
libapache-mod-jk-doc - Documentation of libapache-mod-jk/libapache2-mod-jk
packages libapache2-mod-jk - Apache 2 connector for the Tomcat Java
servlet engine

> 
> and
> 
> Can I search the list to find out if a mod_jk or a mod_jk2 connector package
> exists?

As above, or open the Synaptic package manager and browse ( if you have
X installed). 

Alternatively, search at http://packages.ubuntu.com

Also:

apt-cache show apt-howto
sudo apt-get install apt-howto-en  ( or choose a language from the
previous "show" output)

apt-howto      as a command will open the documentation in your browser.
Bookmark it. Or you can read the same document at

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/

Peter