Once the list of available packages is updated you can see what new packages have recently been added to Debian with the command:
$ wajig new
Note that after the first time you use wajig update all packages will be considered new! But after the next update the new packages are those that were not in the available list from the previous update.
Some (and often many) of the packages that you already have installed on your Debian system may have been upgraded in the archive since the last time you performed an update. The following command will list these packages:
$ wajig newupgrades
For a complete list of the packages you have installed but for which there are newer versions available on the archive use:
$ wajig toupgrade
To check the version of any installed package and also the version available from the archive previously (last time, but one, you performed an upgrade) and now (based on the last time you performed an update), and to also see the so called Desired and Status flags of the package, use:
$ wajig status <package names> (similar to dpkg -l)
Without a list of package names all installed packages will be listed.
To check for a particular package for which you might guess at part of its name you can use:
$ wajig listnames <string> (apt-cache pkgnames)
Without the string argument all known package names will be listed.
Each package installs some collection of files in different places on your system (e.g., in /usr/bin/, /usr/man/man1/ and usr/doc/). Sometimes you like to see where those files go or even just view the list of files installed. The command to use is:
$ wajig listfiles <package name> (dpkg --listfiles )
To list a one line dscription for a package use:
$ wajig whatis <package name>
And to find which package supplies a given command of file use:
$ wajig whichpkg <command or file path>