IMO apt’s search is just not very good at that (or at least it’s unintuitive). Even if you know the name of the program, apt-cache search often shows like 90% irrelevant results.
According to the man-page at https://manpages.debian.org/buster/apt/apt.8.en.html and the linked https://manpages.debian.org/buster/manpages/regex.7.en.html, you should be able to use regex like apt search'(-|^)vim(-|$)' to get vim as either whole name or related packages with containing vim with leading or trailing dashes, or apt search'^vim' to get any beginning with vim—in case that helps. zypper lets me do essentially that with zypper se '/(-|^)vim(-|$)/' and such.
(I do sometimes use apt-cache search ^[applicationname], but depending on the application it might not help that much, and it requires that know what specific application you want, vs. something general like ‘a cd burning application’)
I understand what you mean, and tend to agree, although I had some success with zypper se -d '/CD.*burn/'—'CD.*(burn)|(writer)' produced more results than I’d like—for your example. It also appears apt-cache search already searches descriptions by default.
Looking at results for just /CD/—amid the many poor results—it seems my earlier search missed some due to differing word usage, such as recording rather than burning, and whatnot.
IMO apt’s search is just not very good at that (or at least it’s unintuitive). Even if you know the name of the program,
apt-cache searchoften shows like 90% irrelevant results.According to the man-page at https://manpages.debian.org/buster/apt/apt.8.en.html and the linked https://manpages.debian.org/buster/manpages/regex.7.en.html, you should be able to use regex like
apt search '(-|^)vim(-|$)'to getvimas either whole name or related packages with containingvimwith leading or trailing dashes, orapt search '^vim'to get any beginning withvim—in case that helps.zypperlets me do essentially that withzypper se '/(-|^)vim(-|$)/'and such.… I’ll just duckduckgo it instead.
(I do sometimes use
apt-cache search ^[applicationname], but depending on the application it might not help that much, and it requires that know what specific application you want, vs. something general like ‘a cd burning application’)I understand what you mean, and tend to agree, although I had some success with
zypper se -d '/CD.*burn/'—'CD.*(burn)|(writer)'produced more results than I’d like—for your example. It also appearsapt-cache searchalready searches descriptions by default.Looking at results for just
/CD/—amid the many poor results—it seems my earlier search missed some due to differing word usage, such as recording rather than burning, and whatnot.