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I want to get information related to all the versions of a package from its first version to the current version for Ubuntu.

I can tap into the info using apt or apt-cache, but it gives info only for the current package version.

Maybe, I should first get a list of the package's versions and then try getting info for each of them at once. But how to do this using the package-manager or is there some other way for getting all the versions' info at once?

Hrishikesh Pawar
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  • What information are you looking for, for each released version? – Stephen Kitt Apr 07 '21 at 11:26
  • Source, Version number, homepage, maintainer, architecture etc. basically all info provided by apt-cache search or apt search. I know most will be the same for all versions. But atleast version number will be different in all versions. – Hrishikesh Pawar Apr 07 '21 at 11:31

2 Answers2

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There are a number of tools available to view information about package versions available in Ubuntu (or any Debian derivative).

  • apt changelog will show the list of changes made to a given package, going back to either the creation of the changelog or the introduction of the package in Debian.

  • rmadison (from the devscripts package) will show the currently-available versions across all available repositories; for example

    $ rmadison -u ubuntu gcc
gcc | 4:4.6.3-1ubuntu5   | precise         | amd64, armel, armhf, i386, powerpc
gcc | 4:4.8.2-1ubuntu6   | trusty          | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el
gcc | 4:5.3.1-1ubuntu1   | xenial          | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el, s390x
gcc | 4:7.3.0-3ubuntu2   | bionic          | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
gcc | 4:7.4.0-1ubuntu2.3 | bionic-security | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
gcc | 4:7.4.0-1ubuntu2.3 | bionic-updates  | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
gcc | 4:9.3.0-1ubuntu2   | focal           | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
gcc | 4:10.2.0-1ubuntu1  | groovy          | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
gcc | 4:10.2.0-1ubuntu1  | hirsute         | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x

  • For Ubuntu specifically, Launchpad provides lots of information on packages, including everything shown above (see the corresponding gcc-defaults information); there’s a Debian equivalent too.

To see the homepage, maintainer etc. across all published versions, you’ll have to look at the history of the debian/control file in the packages’ source repositories (if any), or failing that, in the package archives. You’ll be able to find all that from the package trackers above (Launchpad etc.), or using debcheckout (from the devscripts package) for packages with a published repository.

Many other distributions have similar tools and/or sites.

Stephen Kitt
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  • Isn't `apt-cache madison ` doing the same? I guess that only shows stuff for my local sources? – Panki Apr 07 '21 at 12:15
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    @Panki `apt-cache madison` emulates `madison`’s output, using the information it has (locally). So it’s not the same as `rmadison`, it won’t show all the information that’s available in the remote database. – Stephen Kitt Apr 07 '21 at 12:18
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rmadison is what you may want:

# apt install devscripts
<...>

# rmadison sudo
sudo       | 1.8.10p3-1+deb8u5   | oldoldstable       | source, amd64, armel, armhf, i386
sudo       | 1.8.19p1-2.1+deb9u2 | oldstable          | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
sudo       | 1.8.19p1-2.1+deb9u2 | oldstable-debug    | source
sudo       | 1.8.27-1+deb10u3    | stable             | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
sudo       | 1.8.27-1+deb10u3    | stable-debug       | source
sudo       | 1.9.5p2-3           | testing            | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
sudo       | 1.9.5p2-3           | unstable           | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
sudo       | 1.9.5p2-3           | unstable-debug     | source
sudo       | 1.9.6-1~exp2        | experimental       | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
sudo       | 1.9.6-1~exp2        | experimental-debug | source
Panos
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