Test script to list available packages

apt-check.js

//Require exec from child processes
var exec = require('child_process').exec;

//List the packages
exec("apt-get --just-print upgrade", function (error, stdout, stderr) {
        //Package list
        var packages = {}
        //Split at each line
        stdout = stdout.split("\n");
        //for each line
        stdout.forEach(function(value){
                //If string starts with Inst
                if( value.substring( 0 , 4 ) == "Inst" ){
                        //Split at each space
                        var value2 = value.split(" ");
                        //Add to packages list from id
                        packages[value2[1]] = {
                                "curVer": value2[2].substring(1, value2[2].length-1),
                                "nextVer": value2[3].substring(1)
                        };
                }
        });

        console.log(packages);
});

sample output from apt

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  cycript eu.heinelt.ifile
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Inst cycript [0.9.288-1] (0.9.332-1 Cydia/Telesphoreo:1.0r282/stable)
Inst eu.heinelt.ifile [1.6.1-1] (1.6.1-3 BigBoss:1.0/stable)
Conf cycript (0.9.332-1 Cydia/Telesphoreo:1.0r282/stable)
Conf eu.heinelt.ifile (1.6.1-3 BigBoss:1.0/stable)