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I need to look into an issue with an old version of a Debian package <pkg>, and would like to download it in both binary and source forms.

A quick apt-cache show <pkg> just displays the most recent versions of <pkg>, but not a complete history.

Is there a way to display the version history of <pkg> using APT?

Shuzheng
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    Does this answer your question? [How to install the previous version of a .deb package and pin it?](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/242014/how-to-install-the-previous-version-of-a-deb-package-and-pin-it) - despite the pinning, you will find how to install a specific version there. AFAIK searching old packages is not an apt feature, but you may just manually browse the repositories, they normally are visible as index websites. – FelixJN Jan 27 '21 at 08:42
  • @Fiximan - by manually searching, you mean go to http://deb.debian.org/debian/ and browse "stretch" or "jessie"? – Shuzheng Jan 27 '21 at 09:33
  • More or less. Use `apt show ` and the line `APT-Sources` to define if main, contrib or nonfree, then look at `http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/[main,contib,non-free]/[letter]/[package]` - where letter is the first letter (or digit) of the package name (except for lib-type packages .... just take a look). You will find all version names there. Then install via e.g. `apt install package=version` or manually download the `deb` and use `dpkg`. – FelixJN Jan 27 '21 at 10:23
  • @Fiximan - does your ftp source contain the same set of packages as the snapshot archive suggested in the answer? – Shuzheng Jan 27 '21 at 19:01
  • Well, yes and no: A snapshot has only one version of each package as provided on that very day. By browsing the package repository, you will find several versions of which you may install any according to your liking. (be careful with dependencies, though) – FelixJN Jan 27 '21 at 19:08
  • @Fiximan - I guess it is very rare that multiple versions of a package exist on a given day, in which case only of them will be in the snapshot? – Shuzheng Jan 27 '21 at 19:14
  • Yes, exactly. That is what I meant - in case you want to browse versions, this approach helps better that the snapshot way. – FelixJN Jan 27 '21 at 19:31

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You can find every version of a package that was in Debian by using the snapshot archive. You can just search for a package name and see every version of it that was released by Debian. Or by using the instructions on that web site you can make a sources.list file that points at an apt repository for a point in time.

grifferz
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