Is it possible to query versions of APT packages from not-my-current release without editing sources.list?

Question

I've been learning about Linux package management recently (https://superuser.com/questions/393681/how-to-find-out-which-versions-of-a-package-can-i-install-on-apt, https://askubuntu.com/questions/340530/how-can-i-check-the-available-version-of-a-package-in-the-repositories, Why do different Linux distros have different package formats (and package managers)?, https://itsfoss.com/ubuntu-repository-mechanism/, https://itsfoss.com/sources-list-ubuntu/)

If I understand correctly, /etc/apt/sources.list (and .list/.sources files in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/) controls where apt-get (and related utilities) get packages/source code from.

Since my current release is jammy, I have entries in my sources.list such as the following:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy main restricted

...which I think means that (after running apt-file update) apt-cache policy libuv1 will look for all available versions of libuv1 at http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/jammy/main/

$ apt-cache policy libuv1
libuv1:
  Installed: 1.43.0-1
  Candidate: 1.43.0-1
  Version table:
 *** 1.43.0-1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
$
$ apt-cache madison libuv1
    libuv1 |   1.43.0-1 | http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
    libuv1 |   1.43.0-1 | http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main Sources
$

My question is: is there a way to query available versions of the libuv1 package for releases other than jammy without editing sources.list?

From the above apt-cache output, it appears that 1.43.0-1 is the only version available - both as a package and as source. But I know the libuv authors have newer versions. I'd like to learn whether I can query non-jammy package repositories for availability of newer libuv1 packages or source. Out of an excess of caution, I am nervous about adding entries like deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ mantic main restricted to sources.list because I'm afraid I might forget, then later carelessly run apt-get upgrade -- wouldn't that then run the risk of creating a FrankenDebian?

I only want to find out -- if only for curiosity's sake -- whether newer versions of libuv1 source/packages exist in releases other than my current, without the risks incurred by editing sources.list -- is there a way? Put another way: is it necessary to edit sources.list both to query availability and install packages, or is it possible to query package availability without editing the file?

Answer 1

Constantine A.B.’s answer alludes to it without going into detail; rmadison is the tool you’re looking for.

Install the devscripts package:

$ sudo apt install --no-install-recommends devscripts wget

(devscripts has a lot of optional dependencies, hence the explicit --no-install-recommends; rmadison needs wget, which is one of those optional dependencies), then run rmadison to query the online database:

$ rmadison libuv1
 libuv1 | 1.8.0-1           | xenial/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.18.0-3          | bionic          | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.34.2-1ubuntu1   | focal           | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.34.2-1ubuntu1.3 | focal-security  | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.34.2-1ubuntu1.3 | focal-updates   | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.43.0-1          | jammy           | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.44.2-1          | lunar           | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.44.2-1          | mantic          | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.46.0-2ubuntu1   | noble           | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
 libuv1 | 1.46.0-3          | noble-proposed  | source, amd64, arm64, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x

The syntax is simple enough, rmadison followed by the name(s) of the binary and/or source packages you’re interested in.

Since libuv1 is imported directly from Debian, without changes most of the time, you might want to check there too:

$ rmadison -u debian libuv1
libuv1     | 1.24.1-1+deb10u1 | oldoldstable       | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
libuv1     | 1.24.1-1+deb10u1 | oldoldstable-debug | source
libuv1     | 1.40.0-2         | oldstable          | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
libuv1     | 1.44.2-1         | stable             | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
libuv1     | 1.46.0-2         | testing            | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, ppc64el, s390x
libuv1     | 1.46.0-3         | unstable           | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
libuv1     | 1.46.0-3         | unstable-debug     | source

So libuv 1.47.0 hasn’t been packaged yet, whether for Debian or Ubuntu.

(For readers using Debian, the defaults are the opposite: rmadison with no -u option queries Debian, rmadison -u ubuntu queries Ubuntu.)

Answer 2

Back in the day I used rmadison, from the devscripts package for that.

These days, I'm too lazy and do the overkill:

podman run -it --rm debian:$version sh -c "apt-get update > /dev/null; apt-get info $package"

(Easy to set $version, $package accordingly from $1, $2 in a three lines shell script).

Sure, that starts (and if not already present, downloads) a full Linux container to answer a simple question. But then I don't have to remember another tool's syntax, and can use the same trick to answer more complex questions like "on a Debian 13 with xfce, how much download Volume does installing clementine require?"...