I discovered this when searching for the new rc6 kernel in experimental. A search
for the package name (or parts of it) returns no result despite the package being
available as shown by a-c policy:

# apt-cache search linux-image 2.6.36
# apt-cache search linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64
# apt-cache policy linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64
linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64:
  Installiert: (keine)
  Kandidat:    (keine)
  Versionstabelle:
     2.6.36~rc6-1~experimental.1 0
        -10 http://127.0.0.1/ftp.at.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main amd64 Packages

# apt-cache show linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64
Package: linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64
Priority: optional
Section: kernel
Installed-Size: 100580
Maintainer: Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel@lists.debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Source: linux-2.6
Version: 2.6.36~rc6-1~experimental.1
Provides: linux-image, linux-image-2.6, linux-modules-2.6.36-rc6-amd64
Depends: module-init-tools, linux-base (>= 2.6.36~rc6-1~experimental.1), initramfs-tools (>= 0.55) | linux-initramfs-tool
Pre-Depends: debconf | debconf-2.0
Recommends: firmware-linux-free (>= 2.6.36~rc6)
Suggests: linux-doc-2.6.36, grub | lilo
Conflicts: initramfs-tools (<< 0.55)
Filename: pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image-2.6.36-rc6-amd64_2.6.36~rc6-1~experimental.1_amd64.deb
Size: 28935378
MD5sum: e1dce6687b44c55fb5ba1bc544579675
SHA1: 904a41f42bc3ac94b97eb3d4c816d5725e2af3a6
SHA256: babcb0b25be5154760e1d2b3985536fe5e292c66597187790eaf787c509caabc
Description: Linux 2.6.36-rc6 for 64-bit PCs
 The Linux kernel 2.6.36-rc6 and modules for use on PCs with AMD64 or Intel
 64 processors.
 .
 This kernel also runs on a Xen hypervisor.  It supports only unprivileged
 (domU) operation.


I guess the problem is that the Package name is not searched. If that's the case, please
include it in the searched fields.

Removing the preferences file solves the problem. Does that mean that
packages with negative Pin-Priorities get ignored by apt-cache search?
If yes, is this docuemented somewhere?

WM

retitle 600010 document that apt-cache search operates only on candidates
severity 600010 wishlist
thanks


You have pinned all versions of this package below zero so,
as policy tells you, this package has no candidate:

What can't be installed isn't really useful as a search result,
so APT doesn't include the package in the result list - expected behavior.
(a quick look suggests that it is nowhere documented that apt-cache search
 only does searching in candidate versions)

You might want to pin to 1 instead of -10 (which is the default
for experimental), so APT can choose this experimental version
as candidate for this package (as no other "better" archive provides
a version of this package) and can therefore include it in search results…


Best regards

David Kalnischkies