How to check the version before install packages u

Question

I'm thinking to install hylafax+ version 5.5.4 which was release last month on my Debian PC.

I checked dpkg -l | grep "hylafax" and found out that the current version is 5.5.3. Then I checked apt-cache search hylafax and saw the packages are available, but I can't see any version number.

How can I find the version of packages available in the apt-get?

Answer 1

apt-cache policy <package-name>

$ apt-cache policy redis-server
redis-server:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2:2.8.4-2
  Version table:
     2:2.8.4-2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe amd64 Packages

apt-get install -s <package-name>

$ apt-get install -s redis-server
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
      apt-get needs root privileges for real execution.
      Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
      so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libjemalloc1 redis-tools
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libjemalloc1 redis-server redis-tools
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Inst libjemalloc1 (3.5.1-2 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
Inst redis-tools (2:2.8.4-2 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
Inst redis-server (2:2.8.4-2 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
Conf libjemalloc1 (3.5.1-2 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
Conf redis-tools (2:2.8.4-2 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])
Conf redis-server (2:2.8.4-2 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [amd64])

apt-cache show <package-name>

$ apt-cache show redis-server
Package: redis-server
Priority: optional
Section: universe/misc
Installed-Size: 744
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <[e-mail]>
Original-Maintainer: Chris Lamb <[e-mail]>
Architecture: amd64
Source: redis
Version: 2:2.8.4-2
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.14), libjemalloc1 (>= 2.1.1), redis-tools (= 2:2.8.4-2), adduser
Filename: pool/universe/r/redis/redis-server_2.8.4-2_amd64.deb
Size: 267446
MD5sum: 066f3ce93331b876b691df69d11b7e36
SHA1: f7ffbf228cc10aa6ff23ecc16f8c744928d7782e
SHA256: 2d273574f134dc0d8d10d41b5eab54114dfcf8b716bad4e6d04ad8452fe1627d
Description-en: Persistent key-value database with network interface
 Redis is a key-value database in a similar vein to memcache but the dataset
 is non-volatile. Redis additionally provides native support for atomically
 manipulating and querying data structures such as lists and sets.
 .
 The dataset is stored entirely in memory and periodically flushed to disk.
Description-md5: 9160ed1405585ab844f8750a9305d33f
Homepage: http://redis.io/
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubunt

dpkg -l <package-name>

$ dpkg -l nginx
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                                     Version                   Architecture              Description
+++-========================================-=========================-=========================-=====================================================================================
ii  nginx                                    1.6.2-1~trusty            amd64                     high performance web server

Answer 2

As posted somewhere else, this works, too:

apt-cache madison <package_name>

Answer 3

Also, the apt-show-versions package (installed separately) parses dpkg information about what is installed and tells you if packages are up to date.

Example..

$ sudo apt-show-versions --regex chrome
google-chrome-stable/stable upgradeable from 32.0.1700.102-1 to 35.0.1916.114-1
xserver-xorg-video-openchrome/quantal-security uptodate 1:0.3.1-0ubuntu1.12.10.1
$