Main, restricted, multiverse, universe - how to know from where package is?

Question

Is it possible to know such information about each package individually?

Answer 1

apt-cache show can give you this (along with a load more details) and doesn't require root.

apt-cache show <<package>> | grep 'Section'

Answer 2

You can also easily access this information with synaptic package manager (with a GUI interface), which you can install from ubuntu software center (or sudo apt-get install synaptic).
Once installed, browse to "Origin" (bottom left).
Best,

Answer 3

Have you tried apt-cache show package_name where package_name stands for the individual package you want information about?

For example, apt-cache show retext gives me, in part, the following:

[06:14 PM] ~ $ apt-cache show retext
Package: retext
Priority: optional
Section: universe/editors
Installed-Size: 321
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Dmitry Shachnev <mitya57@gmail.com>
Architecture: all
Version: 3.1.4-0ubuntu0.1
Depends: python, python-qt4, python-markdown | python-docutils
Recommends: retext-wpgen, python-markdown, python-docutils, python-enchant
Suggests: python-gdata
Filename: pool/universe/r/retext/retext_3.1.4-0ubuntu0.1_all.deb
Size: 67998
MD5sum: a616099dffef90a28202464dbbcacbb0
SHA1: cc41f1641428550b16d38faccfad2712409d05ae
SHA256: daf0bfc7e64f63104f0dea0e25fdb6707589da26b9f65ac8def921ad5ccdaf39
Description-en: Simple text editor for Markdown and reStructuredText
 ReText is a simple editor for Markdown and reStructuredText markup languages.

Note the third line from the top: "Section: universe/editors". That tells you where the package comes from.