How do I search for software packages to install?
Linode
Linode Staff
I'm trying to see if a specific package exists in my package manager's repositories, and am not sure where to look. How can I do this?
1 Reply
tommydavidson
Linode Staff
You can use your Linux distribution's package manager to search its repositories for a specific package. For example, to find the package for the PHP MBstring extension, you can use commands like the following:
Debian/Ubuntu
$ apt-cache search mbstring
php-mbstring - MBSTRING module for PHP [default]
php-patchwork-utf8 - UTF-8 strings handling for PHP
php7.3-mbstring - MBSTRING module for PHP
RedHat/CentOS/Fedora
$ yum search mbstring
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:06 ago on Fri 18 Mar 2022 11:49:37 AM UTC.
============================================================================ Name Matched: mbstring ============================================================================
php-mbstring.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications which need multi-byte string handling