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I have installed google earth. I believe I did it through their website. I'm sure its named something along the lines of google-earth. Every time I do apt update i get an annoying message:

N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb stable InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'

So, I intend to uninstall the program and try to re-install it. It does not show up in software center.

I found instructions for searching program names via:

sudo apt search <part-of-name-with-an-asterisk*>

being lazy, I typed:

sudo apt search earth*

this resulted in a very, very long list of programs that did not have "earth" in the filename.

Typing:

sudo apt search google-earth-pro

resulted in one program returned from the query. The correct one:

google-earth-pro-stable/stable,now 7.3.2.5494-r0 amd64 [installed] Explore, search and discover the planet

Now I can uninstall, however...

Now I'm confused as to why the first attempt yielded different results. If in the future I need to find the exact program name to be able to uninstall it, what is the correct procedure? I'm sure there are many ways to accomplish this, but I feel like I was just being lucky.

Lets say there is a complicated filename 24ewftw2ecw-24wfrew-f2ec or something, and all i can remember about the file was that it had ftw in it somewhere... What is an appropriate method?

What is an appropriate use for using the asterisk on apt search?

Thanks in advance!

SirTwis7
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1 Answers1

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results from query contain "earth"

apt-cache policy *earth*

results from query start with "earth"f

apt-cache policy earth*

results from query end with "earth"

apt-cache policy *earth

you can generate a list of program names this way:

apt search earth

you cannot use an asterisk before the string:

apt search *earth   //This will not work.

you can use an asterisk afterward, but it appears to be redundant:

apt search earth*   //generates the same results as "apt search earth"

apt search will return packages that are both installed and not installed

apt-cache policy will return all of the same, but will tell you whether or not it is installed.

Huge shout out to @Terrance

SirTwis7
  • 103