Re: oddity in apt-cache
On Mon, 2007-04-23 at 23:11 +0200, Florian Kulzer wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 23, 2007 at 13:47:50 -0700, Freddy Freeloader wrote:
> > Florian Kulzer wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >> I think many people would not like it if apt-cache no longer found the
> >> local packages, custom kernels, etc. If a package is still installed
> >> then its information is included in apt's package cache, and "apt-cache"
> >> bases all its results on this cache. It does not query the repositories
> >> at all but it gets this information indirectly whenever you run "apt-get
> >> update" (or aptitude, etc.).
> >>
> >> If you want to run queries on what is available in the repositories you
> >> will probably have to use "apt-file" or "rmadison" (from package
> >> "devscripts").
> >>
> >>
> > Thanks Florian,
> >
> > I guess, then, I just use "apt-cache search" differently than most people
> > do, or even the way it was intended to be used. I use it to find available
> > packages and it has always worked for me until today as I usually run
> > apt-get update on a daily basis. I have never even thought of using it to
> > find something installed locally because to me it makes no sense to use it
> > that way as it gives you no way to know if a package is installed. If I
> > want to find out if something is locally installed I use "dpkg -l | grep
> > relevant_string". That tells me the package's installation status.
>
> [...]
>
> I think I did not make myself very clear: I also use apt-cache like you
> do (mostly since it seems to be faster than "aptitude search" for simple
> queries). I don't think that there is anything wrong with that; you just
> have to be aware that all installed packages are also included in the
> search, even if some of them have meanwhile been removed from the
> repositories.
>
> --
> Regards, | http://users.icfo.es/Florian.Kulzer
> Florian |
>
>
OK. What threw me was when you brought up people using apt-cache to
track packages such as custom built kernels. I would have never thought
of using apt-cache for such a task. dpkg is the only tool I would have
even considered using.
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