This package provides update-apt-xapian-index, a tool to maintain a Xapian index of Debian package information in /var/lib/apt-xapian-index, and axi-cache, a command line search tool that uses the index.

axi-cache allows one to search packages very quickly, and it also interfaces with the shell command line completion in a smart way, providing context-sensitive keyword and tag suggestions even before the search command is actually run.

update-apt-xapian-index allows plugins to be installed in /usr/share/apt-xapian-index to index all sorts of extra information, such as Debtags tags, popcon information, package ratings and anything else that would fit.

The index generated by update-apt-xapian-index is self-documenting, as it contains an autogenerated README file with information on the index layout and all the data that can be found in it.