Ubuntu: How to search for a package to install using apt in Terminal


If you want to install a package on your Ubuntu System and you are unsure of what is the package name like, well in such cases you can open up the Terminal app and make use of the apt search command followed by a string or a regular expression.

Say I want to look for all the available openjdk's.

Example:
# apt search ^openjdk-.*jdk$

Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done

openjdk-11-jdk/jammy-updates,jammy-security 11.0.19+7~us1-0ubuntu1~22.04.1 arm64
  OpenJDK Development Kit (JDK)

openjdk-17-jdk/jammy-updates,jammy-security 17.0.7+7~us1-0ubuntu1~22.04.2 arm64
  OpenJDK Development Kit (JDK)

openjdk-18-jdk/jammy-updates,jammy-security 18.0.2+9-2~22.04 arm64
  OpenJDK Development Kit (JDK)

openjdk-19-jdk/jammy-updates,jammy-security 19.0.2+7-0ubuntu3~22.04 arm64
  OpenJDK Development Kit (JDK)

openjdk-8-jdk/jammy-updates,jammy-security 8u372-ga~us1-0ubuntu1~22.04 arm64
  OpenJDK Development Kit (JDK)
search for a package to install using apt in Terminal

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Rakesh (He/Him) has over 14+ years of experience in Web and Application development. He is the author of insightful How-To articles for Code2care.

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