Search & Filter

aptui includes a unified search and filter bar that lets you build queries to find exactly the packages you need. You can combine free-text fuzzy search with structured filter criteria in a single input.

Opening the search/filter bar

Press / on the main package screen. A unified input bar will appear at the top of the screen.

Controls

Key	Action
/	Open the search/filter bar
o	Open the repository origin filter dropdown
Enter	Apply the query
Esc	Cancel input / clear the active query

Note: The search/filter bar works together with tabs (All / Installed / Upgradable). Tabs are applied before the query.

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How it works

Type any combination of filter tokens and free text in the unified bar:

• Filter tokens (like section:utils, installed, size>10MB) are parsed as structured criteria
• Free text (like vim, editor) is used for fuzzy matching against package names and descriptions
• Both are applied together: filter tokens narrow the results, then free text fuzzy-searches within them

Example: section:editors vim → shows packages in the "editors" section whose name or description fuzzy-matches "vim"

Syntax

A query is composed of tokens separated by spaces. Filter tokens are combined with AND (all must be satisfied). Unrecognized tokens become the fuzzy search query.

Field filters (key:value)

These filters check whether the field value contains the given text (case-insensitive):

Filter	Shorthand	Description
section:<text>	sec:	Package section contains <text>
name:<text>	—	Package name contains <text>
version:<text>	ver:	Package version contains <text>
description:<text>	desc:	Package description contains <text>
arch:<text>	architecture:	Package architecture equals <text> exactly
repo:<text>	origin:	Package repository origin contains <text>

Examples:

section:utils       → packages in a section containing "utils"
sec:editors         → packages in a section containing "editors"
name:vim            → packages whose name contains "vim"
ver:2.0             → packages whose version contains "2.0"
desc:text editor    → packages whose description contains "text" ("editor" becomes a separate token)
arch:amd64          → packages with architecture exactly "amd64"
arch:arm64          → packages with architecture exactly "arm64"
arch:all            → architecture-independent packages
repo:ubuntu         → packages from any origin containing "ubuntu"
repo:noble/main     → packages from the "noble/main" component of any mirror
origin:pop-os       → packages from Pop!_OS repositories

Tip — origins with spaces: Repository origin strings often contain spaces (e.g. archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main). Wrap the value in double quotes to treat it as a single token:

repo:"archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main"
repo:"apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu noble/main" installed

The easiest way to apply an origin filter is to press o from the package list, which opens a dropdown of all detected origins and automatically injects the correctly-quoted repo: token into the filter bar.

Boolean filters

Filter	Description
installed	Only installed packages
!installed	Only not-installed packages
upgradable	Only upgradable packages
!upgradable	Only non-upgradable packages

Examples:

installed          → show only installed packages
!installed         → show only packages that are not installed
upgradable         → show only packages with available upgrades

Size filters

You can filter packages by installed size using comparison operators:

Filter	Description
size>X	Size greater than X
size<X	Size less than X
size>=X	Size greater than or equal to X
size<=X	Size less than or equal to X
size=X	Size exactly equal to X

Accepted units:

Unit	Meaning
kB or k	Kilobytes
MB or m	Megabytes
GB or g	Gigabytes
b	Bytes

If no unit is provided, the value is treated as kB.

Examples:

size>10MB          → packages larger than 10 MB
size<5MB           → packages smaller than 5 MB
size>=100kB        → packages 100 kB or larger
size<=1GB          → packages 1 GB or smaller
size=500kB         → packages exactly 500 kB

Alternative syntax with ::

size:>10MB         → equivalent to size>10MB
size:<5MB          → equivalent to size<5MB

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Combining filters

Multiple filters are combined with AND. All criteria must be satisfied simultaneously.

Examples:

section:utils arch:amd64

→ Packages in the "utils" section with "amd64" architecture

installed size>50MB

→ Installed packages larger than 50 MB

!installed desc:editor

→ Editors that are not installed

sec:libs size<1MB arch:amd64

→ Libraries smaller than 1 MB for amd64

installed upgradable size>10MB

→ Installed, upgradable packages larger than 10 MB

name:python sec:python arch:amd64 installed

→ Installed Python packages for amd64

!installed arch:all size<100kB

→ Not-installed, architecture-independent packages smaller than 100 kB

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Sorting (order)

You can sort the results by a column using the order: syntax:

order:<column>           → sort ascending (default)
order:<column>:asc       → sort ascending (explicit)
order:<column>:desc      → sort descending

Available columns

Column	Aliases	Description
name	—	Sort by package name
version	ver	Sort by version string
size	—	Sort by installed size
section	sec	Sort by section
architecture	arch	Sort by architecture

Examples:

order:name               → sort by name A→Z
order:name:desc          → sort by name Z→A
order:size:desc          → largest packages first
order:size:asc           → smallest packages first
order:ver:desc           → newest versions first

Combining sort with filters

Sort can be combined with any other filter:

installed order:size:desc

→ Installed packages, largest first

section:utils order:name

→ Packages in "utils" section, sorted by name A→Z

!installed size>10MB order:size:desc

→ Not-installed packages larger than 10 MB, largest first

Note: When a sort is active, the column header in the package list shows ▲ (ascending) or ▼ (descending).

Unknown data handling

Packages whose metadata hasn't been loaded yet (showing "-" for version or size) are always pushed to the end of the sorted list, regardless of sort direction. This ensures that packages with real data are always visible first.

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Combining search and filter

Since the search and filter are now unified in a single bar, you can combine them naturally:

section:editors vim

→ Packages in the "editors" section, fuzzy-matched against "vim"

installed size>10MB python

→ Installed packages larger than 10 MB, fuzzy-matched against "python"

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Combining with tabs

Tabs (All / Installed / Upgradable, toggled with Tab) are applied before the query:

• All tab: the query is applied to all packages
• Installed tab: the query is applied only to installed packages
• Upgradable tab: the query is applied only to upgradable packages

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Fallback to APT cache

If a fuzzy search returns 0 results from the loaded package list, APTUI automatically falls back to apt-cache search <query> to search the full APT cache. This ensures you can still find packages that may not have been loaded yet.

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Repository origin filter

Press o from the package list to open a dropdown listing all repository origins detected from the locally cached APT metadata.

How it works

1. APTUI scans all loaded packages and collects their unique repository origin strings (e.g. archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main, apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu noble/main).
2. An overlay appears. Navigate with ↑ / ↓ and press Enter to select.
3. Selecting an origin automatically writes a repo:"..." token into the filter bar (with quotes when the origin contains spaces) and closes the dropdown.
4. Press / at any time to open the filter bar — it will already contain the injected repo: token. You can add more tokens or free text alongside it.
5. Selecting the [Clear repo filter] entry at the top removes the repo: token.
6. Pressing Esc from the dropdown discards any selection and returns to the package list.

Controls

Key	Action
o	Open the repository origin dropdown
↑ / k	Move selection up
↓ / j	Move selection down
pgup / ctrl+u	Page up
pgdn / ctrl+d	Page down
enter	Apply selected origin as repo: filter
esc	Cancel and return to package list

Example workflow

1. Press o — dropdown appears showing origins such as:

   [Clear repo filter]
   apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu noble/main
   archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main
   archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/universe
   security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security/main
   

2. Select archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main → the filter bar now shows:

   repo:"archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main"
   

3. Press / to open the bar and add a text search:

   repo:"archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/main" python
   

   This shows only packages from that repo whose name/description fuzzy-matches "python".

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Clearing the query

• Press Esc on the main screen to clear the active query
• Press Ctrl+R to reload all packages (also clears the query)

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