On Sun, Oct 08, 2023 at 10:47:58AM +0200, Jörg-Volker Peetz wrote: > Greg Wooledge wrote on 07/10/2023 20:45: > > unicorn:~$ apt list '?provides(~nlsb-base)' > > Listing... Error! > > E: input:0-21: error: Unrecognized pattern '?provides' > > ?provides(~nlsb-base) > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > > How about > > apt list '?reverse-depends(?name(lsb-base))'
Reverse-depends isn't the same as Provides, though. unicorn:~$ aptitude search '~Pmail-transport-agent' p courier-mta - Courier mail server - ESMTP daemon p courier-mta:i386 - Courier mail server - ESMTP daemon p dma - lightweight mail transport agent p dma:i386 - lightweight mail transport agent [...] unicorn:~$ apt list '?reverse-depends(~nmail-transport-agent)' Listing... Done unicorn:~$ The only way I know of, to get that list from apt, is by parsing it out of the output of "apt-cache showpkg". unicorn:~$ apt-cache showpkg mail-transport-agent | sed -n '/^Reverse Provides/,$p' Reverse Provides: mta-local 1.0 (= ) exim4-daemon-light 4.96-15+deb12u2 (= ) exim4-daemon-heavy 4.96-15+deb12u2 (= ) dma:i386 0.13-1+b1 (= ) ssmtp 2.64-11 (= ) [...] Which is... better than nothing, admittedly, but it still mystifies me why this *one* feature is excluded from apt-patterns, when so many others are included.
