This is a command line wrapper aound the basic "apt-get", "apt-cache", and related commands. It's designed to make it easy to search for and install Debian packages. In some ways it is similar to the GUI based Synaptic program. If you been wanting something like Synaptic that works in the command line then maybe "cli-aptiX" is what you've been looking for.
After the initial "apt-get update" you will normally perform a search to look for packages by name. For any search term you enter, there will be four different sets of results:
If any packages have names that exactly match your search term, they are listed here. There can be more than one package in this list if you used the " * " or "?" wildcard characters.
This includes all packages that match your search term at the beginning of their name. For example, if you use the search term "abc" then you will get a Leading Name Match result list that looks like:
1) (I) abcde - A Better CD Encoder
2) abcm2ps - Translates ABC music description ...
3) abcmidi - converter from ABC to MIDI format ...
The "(I)" on the first line indicates that package is already installed. Notice that all three names begin with "abc".
This list includes all packages with names that contain your search term anywhere. If the search term is "abc" then the results will be something like:
1) (I) abcde - A Better CD Encoder
2) abcm2ps - Translates ABC music description ...
3) abcmidi - converter from ABC to MIDI format ...
4) berkeley-abc - ABC - A System for Sequentia ...
5) grabc - simple program to determine the col ...
6) libakonadi-kabc4 - Akonadi address book acc ...
7) libkabc4 - library for handling address boo ...
8) python-backports-abc - Backport of the "col ...
Notice that this list contains all the packages from the previous list and the name for every package in this list contains "abc".
This list contains all of the packages from the previous list plus any packages that contain your search term in their description.
As long as the entire list fits on the screen, this is straightfoward, just type in the number associated with the package you want to install. But if the list is too long to all fit on the screen at once then you will need to scroll through the list using "Up-Arrow" and "Down-Arrow" and and "Page-Down" to scroll the list (and even "Left-Arrow" and "Right-Arrow" to scroll sideways). Scroll the list so the package you want to select is near the botton of the screen and then press 'q'. You will be asked to enter the number for the package you want.