Hi David, thanks for answering, but what I meant was that if I wished to look for another package that, as just like the case of pine, DOESN'T have a binary version due to license restrictions or anything else, I couldn't. Or at least up to now I don't know how to work it out. Another example could be the IDEA ciphering algorithm. GnuPG doesn't consider this algorithm because of patent restrictions. The point is that in some countries the patent doesn't apply, and at GnuPG web site you can download the source of the plugin, compile and install. And the question remains, how am I suppose to know whether this IDEA plugin is available (like pine) to be downloaded and installed via apt-get source? Regards, Bruno. On Tue, 2002-11-26 at 15:15, David Z Maze wrote: > (Reordering...) > > Bruno Diniz de Paula <diniz@cs.rutgers.edu> writes: > > So, how could I know in advance which packages are available in the > > source mirrors listed on my sources.list file? > > Every binary package should have a corresponding source package. > > > does anybody know how can I search for a source package? For example, I > > was wishing to install pine in my machine. If I do: > > > > apt-cache search pine > > > > the pine package isn't listed, but if I do: > > > > apt-get -b source pine > > > > it installs the package perfectly. > > pine is a special case, since its license basically forbids Debian > from distributing packages of it. (It's okay to distribute the > pristine pine source and a set of patches and have the user build the > result, which is what 'apt-get source -b' automates.) In almost every > other case, every source package builds at least one binary package. > > You might consider using an APT front-end, like aptitude, where you > can browse through the list of packages easier. Instead of pine, if > you don't need so much hand-holding, you might consider the DFSG-free > mutt, which has a somewhat similar user interface. > > -- > David Maze dmaze@debian.org http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/ > "Theoretical politics is interesting. Politicking should be illegal." > -- Abra Mitchell -- Bruno Diniz de Paula <diniz@cs.rutgers.edu> Rutgers University
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