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It may prove very useful if the “deb” entries in your APT sources.list point to stable and the “deb-src” entries point to unstable. With this program you are easily able to find out if there is a newer version of eg. Program XXXX in unstable.

Install apt-show-source in Debian

#apt-get install apt-show-source

Install apt-show-source in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install apt-show-source

This will complete the installation.

apt-show-source Syntax

apt-show-source [options] [pkgs …]

Example

# apt-show-source bash

Output looks like below

Inst. Package (Version) | Newest Source Package (Version)
——————————————————————————-
notification-daemon (0.3.5-1+b1) | notification-daemon (0.3.5-1)
libkpathsea4 (3.0-24) | tetex-bin (3.0-27)
libgtksourceview-common (1.8.1-2) | gtksourceview (1.8.2-1)
gnome-volume-manager (1.5.15-1+b1) | gnome-volume-manager (1.5.15-1)

If you want to know more available options check apt-show-source man page

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