First I saw that it's written in Perl. Then I realized that the last release was 11 years ago and that the repository domains are hardcoded in the one-file script.

Who has?

Nixpkgs has. :)

Nowadays the only search like this I need to run is

  nix-locate -r 'bin/foo$'

It would be nice to have a CLI alternative to Repology, though.

Latest release: May 19, 2015

Abandoned, but forkable (since FOSS), and a decent idea.

Probably nowadays this gets done in Node, parsing the package search websites. Preferably, this would be done via an API though.

I've been working on a GUI task manager for Linux and I've been wanting to put a "Funding" or ownership meta data next to the process or process group in the view so people can know where the upstream code lives, how to support the project, and what organizational unit "owns" that process.

So I actually vibe coded a script that does this against a sqlite db I've been considering to bundle with my task manager so it can know this stuff on the fly.

But yea this is a key missing component in Linux user space. Windows let's you encode organizational stuff into an exe but on Linux binaries don't really have that.

Shame Homebrew for Linux is getting no love from any of the tools / lists mentioned here.

Since switching to that and flatpak my distro choice is "what sticks closest to the upstream of [my preferred DE]"

There is also https://pkgs.org ..

Oh nice, I just implemented something like this for installing from any package manager uv-style https://abxpkg.archivebox.io/, but I haven't added a "search" command yet, I should add that!

First I saw that it's written in Perl. Then I realized that the last release was 11 years ago and that the repository domains are hardcoded in the one-file script.

Who has?

Nixpkgs has. :)

Nowadays the only search like this I need to run is

  nix-locate -r 'bin/foo$'

It would be nice to have a CLI alternative to Repology, though.

Latest release: May 19, 2015

Abandoned, but forkable (since FOSS), and a decent idea.

Probably nowadays this gets done in Node, parsing the package search websites. Preferably, this would be done via an API though.

So I actually vibe coded a script that does this against a sqlite db I've been considering to bundle with my task manager so it can know this stuff on the fly.

But yea this is a key missing component in Linux user space. Windows let's you encode organizational stuff into an exe but on Linux binaries don't really have that.

Shame Homebrew for Linux is getting no love from any of the tools / lists mentioned here.

Since switching to that and flatpak my distro choice is "what sticks closest to the upstream of [my preferred DE]"

There is also https://pkgs.org ..

Oh nice, I just implemented something like this for installing from any package manager uv-style https://abxpkg.archivebox.io/, but I haven't added a "search" command yet, I should add that!

This would pair nicely with distrobox or Bedrock Linux:)

List of linux package search databases:

https://github.com/sxiii/awesome-package-search

This is exactly the kind of boring CLI tool that earns its keep. Package names and availability differ just enough across distros to waste time in tiny annoying increments.

This kind of busy work should suit an AI agent:

Go and find me all the repolists and package/software metadata for any distro and OS ever released. Write the results to a local SQLite. Incrementally update, but don't hammer the sources to death. Provide a web UI and CLI.

Does it still work, though?

Where else would you put the repository domains?

The last commit was four years ago.

Another great tool, built on top of nix-locate, is comma. So for any program foo, if you have foo installed, you can run it like this:

foo

And if you don't have it installed, you can run it (without installing!) like this:

  , foo

And if multiple different packages provide a program named bin/foo then comma lets you interactively choose the one you want, and remembers your choice so you don't have to specify again unless you choose to via the -d flag.

> Probably nowadays this gets done in Node, parsing the package search websites. Preferably, this would be done via an API though.

Repology provides an API but it's unstable: https://repology.org/api/v1

Yes, agree. The idea and concept is cool! Imo worth it to keep an eye on it and play with it.

First thought, which came to my mind, was a security use case to get it to a point for sbom handling and tracking. In particular, respective to all the recent package vulnerabilities.

Do Linux users actually use Homebrew day to day? My impression of it was that it's mostly for MacOS users that want to keep doing things the same way instead of learning the Linux way (using the OS package manager).

The last commit was four years ago.

Another great tool, built on top of nix-locate, is comma. So for any program foo, if you have foo installed, you can run it like this:

foo

And if you don't have it installed, you can run it (without installing!) like this:

  , foo

This would pair nicely with distrobox or Bedrock Linux:)

Does it still work, though?

Where else would you put the repository domains?

Are you asking if this tool can find something on ubuntu 26.04 when the urls it has were hardcoded 11 years ago?

In about a hundred or so separate microservices, of course…

List of linux package search databases:

https://github.com/sxiii/awesome-package-search

> Probably nowadays this gets done in Node, parsing the package search websites. Preferably, this would be done via an API though.

Repology provides an API but it's unstable: https://repology.org/api/v1

Yes, agree. The idea and concept is cool! Imo worth it to keep an eye on it and play with it.

First thought, which came to my mind, was a security use case to get it to a point for sbom handling and tracking. In particular, respective to all the recent package vulnerabilities.

In about a hundred or so separate microservices, of course…

This kind of busy work should suit an AI agent:

Or you know, you could do that with a ~100 long script. You don't have to use LLMs for everything, especially when you're not dealing with freeform text at all, use data types and data structures, we've created the concepts for a reason.

Are you asking if this tool can find something on ubuntu 26.04 when the urls it has were hardcoded 11 years ago?

The URL to search for packages in Ubuntu for example hasn't changed to my knowledge. Are you assuming it's only looking for packages in releases that were current at the time?

The site it hardcodes is https://packages.ubuntu.com, so yes I would expect it to work fine

I have for a while yeah. As mentioned it means the distro packages don't matter for a lot of developer tools / CLIs. Wanna use a stable Debian / Ubuntu LTS for years? Want to use rolling releases so your desktop is up to date? Homebrew's got you covered.

The URL to search for packages in Ubuntu for example hasn't changed to my knowledge. Are you assuming it's only looking for packages in releases that were current at the time?

The site it hardcodes is https://packages.ubuntu.com, so yes I would expect it to work fine

It’s the default package manager in Bazzite and is once of the most functional packagr managers on atomic fedora.

In bazzite/Fedora Silverblue, it's the expected way non-GUI packages are installed to the host system. The other way is toolbox/distrobox (rootless containers tightly integrated with the host).

Sure. But then I would have to use my brain to actually write code. I thought we were past that already. Also, if it's an agent that keeps scouring the net autonomously for more distros, then I wouldn't have to update the sources manually on my 100 line script.

It’s the default package manager in Bazzite and is once of the most functional packagr managers on atomic fedora.

In bazzite/Fedora Silverblue, it's the expected way non-GUI packages are installed to the host system. The other way is toolbox/distrobox (rootless containers tightly integrated with the host).

Notes for whohas

More information can be found at http://www.philippwesche.org/200811/whohas/intro.html

Philipp L. Wesche

whohas is a command line tool that allows querying several package lists at once - currently supported are Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Mageia, Mandriva, openSUSE, Slackware, Source Mage, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Fink, MacPorts and Cygwin. whohas is written in Perl and was designed to help package maintainers find ebuilds, pkgbuilds and similar package definitions from other distributions to learn from. However, it can also be used by normal users who want to know:

Which distribution has packages available for apps upon whom the user depends.
What version of a given package is in use in each distribution, or in each release of a distribution (implemented only for Debian).

whohas gives urls to more details about the package. I recommend using a terminal that recognises hyperlinks and allows easy forwarding to the browser.

You can use grep to improve your search results:

whohas gimp | grep "gimp "

The space will ensure that only results for the package gimp are displayed, not for gimp-print etc.

whohas gimp | grep Arch
whohas gimp | grep -i arch

Either one of the above will display results for Arch Linux only. If you are interested in the search term or package arch, and want results for Arch Linux only,

whohas arch | grep "^Arch"

Example output:

[phil@epistasis whohas_release]$ whohas gaim
Arch      gaim                      1.4.0-1    10-07-2005 Current     http://www.archlinux.org/packages.php?id=4226
Arch      gaim-encryption           2.38-1     14-06-2005 Extra       http://www.archlinux.org/packages.php?id=5518
Arch      festival-gaim             1.1-1                 community   http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?do_Details=1&ID=1017
Arch      gaim-latex                0.3-1                 unsupported http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?do_Details=1&ID=1058
Arch      gaim-otr                  2.0.2-1               unsupported http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?do_Details=1&ID=1242
Arch      gaim-xmms                 0.33-1                unsupported http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?do_Details=1&ID=121
Arch      guifications              2.9-1                 unsupported http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?do_Details=1&ID=640
Debian    gaim                      1                     oldstable   http://packages.debian.org/oldstable/net/gaim
Debian    gaim                      1                     stable      http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/gaim
Debian    gaim                      1                     testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim
Debian    gaim                      1                     unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim
Debian    gaim-autoprofile          2.10-1                testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim-autoprofile
Debian    gaim-autoprofile          2.10-2                unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-autoprofile
Debian    gaim-common               1                     oldstable   http://packages.debian.org/oldstable/net/gaim-common
Debian    gaim-data                 1                     stable      http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/gaim-data
Debian    gaim-data                 1                     testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim-data
Debian    gaim-data                 1                     unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-data
Debian    gaim-dev                  1                     stable      http://packages.debian.org/stable/devel/gaim-dev
Debian    gaim-dev                  1                     testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/devel/gaim-dev
Debian    gaim-dev                  1                     unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/gaim-dev
Debian    gaim-encryption           2.36-3                stable      http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/gaim-encryption
Debian    gaim-encryption           2.37-1                testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim-encryption
Debian    gaim-encryption           2.38-1                unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-encryption
Debian    gaim-extendedprefs        0.4-4                 stable      http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/gaim-extendedprefs
Debian    gaim-extendedprefs        0.4-4                 testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim-extendedprefs
Debian    gaim-extendedprefs        0.4-6                 unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-extendedprefs
Debian    gaim-gnome                1                     oldstable   http://packages.debian.org/oldstable/net/gaim-gnome
Debian    gaim-guifications         2.10-1                stable      http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/gaim-guifications
Debian    gaim-guifications         2.10-1                testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim-guifications
Debian    gaim-guifications         2.10-1                unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-guifications
Debian    gaim-meanwhile            1.2.3-1               testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim-meanwhile
Debian    gaim-meanwhile            1.2.3-1               unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-meanwhile
Debian    gaim-otr                  2.0.1-1               stable      http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/gaim-otr
Debian    gaim-otr                  2.0.2-1               testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim-otr
Debian    gaim-otr                  2.0.2-1               unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-otr
Debian    gaim-themes               0.1-1                 stable      http://packages.debian.org/stable/net/gaim-themes
Debian    gaim-themes               0.1-1                 testing     http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/gaim-themes
Debian    gaim-themes               0.1-1                 unstable    http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gaim-themes
Gentoo    gaim-blogger              1.0.0      22-03-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-blogger-1.0.0
Gentoo    gaim-bnet                 0.1.1      04-03-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-bnet-0.1.1
Gentoo    gaim-bnet                 0.1.0      17-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-bnet-0.1.0
Gentoo    gaim-meanwhile            1.2.3      14-06-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-meanwhile-1.2.3
Gentoo    gaim-meanwhile            1.2.2      04-05-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-meanwhile-1.2.2
Gentoo    gaim-meanwhile            1.2.0      10-04-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-meanwhile-1.2.0
Gentoo    gaim-meanwhile            1.0.2      08-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-meanwhile-1.0.2
Gentoo    gaim-snpp                 0.8.0      21-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-snpp-0.8.0
Gentoo    gaim-assistant            0.09       06-01-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-assistant-0.09
Gentoo    gaim-assistant            0.07       06-01-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-assistant-0.07
Gentoo    gaim-encryption           2.38       12-07-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-encryption-2.38
Gentoo    gaim-encryption           2.37       13-05-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-encryption-2.37
Gentoo    gaim-encryption           2.36       07-07-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-encryption-2.36
Gentoo    gaim-encryption           2.35       27-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-encryption-2.35
Gentoo    gaim-encryption           2.34       24-01-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-encryption-2.34
Gentoo    gaim-encryption           2.32-r1    07-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-encryption-2.32-r1
Gentoo    gaim-extprefs             0.4-r1     04-06-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-extprefs-0.4-r1
Gentoo    gaim-extprefs             0.4        30-03-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-extprefs-0.4
Gentoo    gaim-latex                0.3        17-06-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-latex-0.3
Gentoo    gaim-otr                  2.0.2      17-05-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-otr-2.0.2
Gentoo    gaim-otr                  2.0.1      30-03-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-otr-2.0.1
Gentoo    gaim-otr                  2.0.0      10-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-otr-2.0.0
Gentoo    gaim-otr                  1.0.3      09-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-otr-1.0.3
Gentoo    gaim-rhythmbox            1.0.0.1    21-10-2004             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-rhythmbox-1.0.0.1
Gentoo    gaim-xmms-remote          1.8        29-10-2004             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-xmms-remote-1.8
Gentoo    gaim-xmms-remote          1.7        21-10-2004             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-xmms-remote-1.7
Gentoo    gaimosd                   1.0.0      18-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaimosd-1.0.0
Gentoo    gaim-smileys              20031002   24-06-2004             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?gaim-smileys-20031002
Gentoo    autoprofile               2.10       21-10-2004             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?autoprofile-2.10
Gentoo    bangexec                  1.3.0.2    21-06-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?bangexec-1.3.0.2
Gentoo    bangexec                  1.3.0      21-04-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?bangexec-1.3.0
Gentoo    bangexec                  1.1.4      03-04-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?bangexec-1.1.4
Gentoo    guifications              2.10       10-04-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?guifications-2.10
Gentoo    guifications              2.9        11-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?guifications-2.9
Gentoo    guifications              2.8        07-02-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?guifications-2.8
Gentoo    ignorance                 1.3.1.2    13-07-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?ignorance-1.3.1.2
Gentoo    ignorance                 1.3.0      21-04-2005             http://packages.gentoo.org/ebuilds/?ignorance-1.3.0
Slackware gaim                      1.4.0-i486            slackware

The first column is the name of the distribution, the second the name of the package, the third the version number, then the date, repository name and a url linking to more information about the package. Future versions will have package size information, too. Column lengths are fixed, so you can use cut:

whohas vim | grep " vim " | cut -b 36-45

The first bytes of the data fields at the time of writing are 11, 37, 48, 59 and 71.

I would like to encourage distributors at this time to provide web query interfaces to package lists, and specifically provide the following information: package name, version, date, size and a url to further information (maintainer, build information etc.)

Additional remarks: Debian refers to the binary distribution. Slackware queries Current only. All details (including availability, version numbers and binary sizes) are for the x86 architecture, although this cannot be assured for either Debian or Gentoo in the current version of whohas. I recommend you consult the URLs provided in the output.

Bug reports may be sent to phi1ipp@yahoo.com.

Related software

Repology is an open source service to track versions in distros:

https://repology.org/

pkgs.org is a service for searching Linux/BSD package repositories:

https://pkgs.org/

namecheck is a tool from Debian devscripts to check where names are used:

https://manpages.debian.org/namecheck

This is exactly the kind of boring CLI tool that earns its keep. Package names and availability differ just enough across distros to waste time in tiny annoying increments.

Hacker Times

Hacker Times

Whohas – Command-line utility for cross-distro, cross-repository package search

Discussion

Discussion

Notes for whohas

Related software