Wildcards in aptitude

Question

I want to do something like

aptitude -P install mypackage*

which should install all packages which start with "mypackage". How can I do this with aptitude?

I don't have the time to write up a proper answer right now, but you may find Searching for strings helpful. — user, May 20 '13 at 11:08
The * wildcard is a function of the shell, not of aptitude. You can configure your shell to expand the package list. — Marco, May 20 '13 at 11:09

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered May 20 '13 at 12:07

8

aptitude install '~n ^mypackage'

With multi-arch, you probably want to limit it to one architecture:

aptitude install '~n ^mypackage (~r amd64 | ~r all)'

answered May 20 '13 at 12:07

how would that work if you wanted to apply to two rules, ex: aptitude install pack* mypack* ? – João Pimentel Ferreira Jun 30 '23 at 14:23
@JoãoPimentelFerreira, it's an extended regular expression, so aptitude install '~n "^(my)?pack"' or aptitude install '~n "^(pack|mypack)"' for instance. – Stéphane Chazelas Jun 30 '23 at 17:48

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 20 '13 at 13:01

2

This should do what you want:

aptitude search '^mypackage' | awk '{print $2}' | xargs aptitude install

edited May 20 '13 at 13:01

answered May 20 '13 at 11:33

Flup

2 Answers2