Just as an addendum
apt-cache madison <<package name>>
will list the versions available from all your sources.
apt-cache madison vim
vim | 2:7.3.547-1 | http://debian.mirrors.tds.net/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
vim | 2:7.3.429-2 | http://debian.mirrors.tds.net/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
vim | 2:7.3.429-2 | http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
vim | 2:7.3.429-2 | http://debian.mirrors.tds.net/debian/ testing/main Sources
vim | 2:7.3.547-1 | http://debian.mirrors.tds.net/debian/ unstable/main Sources
madison
is an apt-cache
subcommand, man apt-cache
says:
apt-cache's madison command attempts to mimic the output format and a subset of the functionality of the Debian archive management tool, madison. It displays available versions of a package in a tabular format. Unlike the original madison, it can only display information for the architecture for which APT has retrieved package lists (APT::Architecture).
See also http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18885820/how-to-check-the-version-before-install-packages-using-apt-get
– rogerdpack – 2015-01-09T00:07:23.550