[sciurus]

aptitude also has a CLI. For a while it was recommended over apt-get/apt-cache/apt-file because it tracked packages that were installed only in order to satisfy dependencies and let you automatically remove them when you uninstalled the package that needed them. However, now apt-get does that too.

[disgruntledphd2]

You can search for a name with aptitude, whereas you can't with apt-get. Thats why I prefer the former anyway.