Search uses regular expressions so generally no need for grep unless you need more complex filters; --names-only has the -n short-form: apt-cache search -n <

Search uses regular expressions so generally no need for grep unless you need more complex filters; --names-only has the -n short-form: apt-cache search -n <regexp> More generally apt-get and apt-cache are designed to be backward-compatible for use in scripts whereas apt is not[0]: SCRIPT USAGE AND DIFFERENCES FROM OTHER APT TOOLS The apt(8) commandline is designed as an end-user tool and it may change behavior between versions. While it tries not to break backward compatibility this is not guaranteed either if a change seems beneficial for interactive use. [0] http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/xenial/en/man8/apt.8.html http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/xenial/en/man8/apt.8.htm...