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### 8.2 How do I find a Emacs Lisp package that does XXX?

First of all, you should check to make sure that the package isn’t already available. For example, typing `M-x apropos RET python RET` lists all functions and variables containing the string ‘`python`’.

It is also possible that the package is on your system, but has not been loaded. To see which packages are available for loading, look through your computer’s lisp directory (see File-name conventions). The Lisp source to most packages contains a short description of how they should be loaded, invoked, and configured—so before you use or modify a Lisp package, see if the author has provided any hints in the source code.

The command `C-h p` (`finder-by-keyword`) allows you to browse the constituent Emacs packages.

For advice on how to find extra packages that are not part of Emacs, see Packages that do not come with Emacs.