On 16/04/2025 08:36, Mike Kupfer wrote:
I see that apt-xapian-index has been removed from Debian (and it looks
like Ubuntu, too). I can't say I entirely understand the reasons for
the removal.
Perhaps the package has no maintainer. Moreover debtags have been abandoned.
After reading your message I have noticed that packagesearch (I have
never used this tool though) has been rewritten to avoid
apt-xapian-index and debtags.
I suppose I could just start using "apt-cache search"...
"apt list" and "aptitude search" allow more complex queries.
There is another source of metadata: appstream (I can not tell you
anything besides it exists). A number of packages has it in dependencies:
apt list '~D~nappstream'
