Re: FYI: GNU Emacs Manual to be moved to non-free
>>>>> "D" == D Goel <deego@gnufans.org> writes:
D> hi Thomas
>> 3) It would be great if apt-cache search would report the
>> classification of a package big and red, just like
>> packages.debian.org (I don't know though it can do that already,
>> though).
IMHO, this would be a bad idea. For one thing, I don't think that a
tool like apt-cache should not be manipulating things like colour.
Secondly, the (default) output for apt-cache search should not contain
too much information -- just the short description should be
sufficient. If you need more information, you can always use the
"--full" option (along with, possibly, an appropriate grep).
"apt-cache show" (or "apt-cache search --full") will tell you if a
package is non-free (at least for packages in the official Debian
repositories), by looking at the Section field.
D> this would be a perfect solution which will work for a user like me.
D> This will also avoid the need for creation of an additional
D> "nonfree-but-gnu" section, which was not liked by debian developers.
D> All I want is to be able to continue to do once I put nonfree into my
D> sources.list (to get FSF manuals) is to be able to "apt-cache search"
D> while restricting my results to "free".
Since this information is in the Section field, IMHO, a more compelling
argument could be made that "apt-cache search" should be made more
powerful so as to easily allow for searches on other fields. Or you
could do an "apt-cache search --full" and pipe the output to an
appropriate filter, which should be no more than a handful of lines of
Perl.
BTW, if you're concerned about the free-ness of your system, but want
to keep non-free in your sources, you should probably install vrms. It
would probably be nice if someone (possibly me) would write a
pre-install script for apt that will warn you whenever you try to
install a non-free package. AFAICT, this should be fairly easy to do.
--
Hubert Chan <hubert@uhoreg.ca> - http://www.uhoreg.ca/
PGP/GnuPG key: 1024D/124B61FA
Fingerprint: 96C5 012F 5F74 A5F7 1FF7 5291 AF29 C719 124B 61FA
Key available at wwwkeys.pgp.net. Encrypted e-mail preferred.
Reply to: