Re: Is it possible to get the database of packages.debian.org?

[Greg Folkert <greg@gregfolkert.net>]

On Mon, 2007-04-02 at 00:51 +0200, jfr.fg@freenet.de wrote:
> >Well, in that case "apt-cache show dpkg-www" 
> >will do the trick as shown here:
> I must admit that in the extent of information this is not worse.
> 
> >What objection is there for that?
> It's just a kind of prefering the one and not the other way.
> For myself, in _this_ case, commandline is the more circuitous solution.
> 
> As synaptic requires root-privileges, I would not really get happy with it,
> but dpkg-www seems to be a quite interesting alternative.
> 
> Altough, I'm still interested in the database of packages.debian.org
> Is there any suggestion on how to find?
> Or a reason, not to do it (it might be very large or restricted)?

I guess I was mis-reading your message.

"apt-cache show <package>" can be re-directed into any "gui" output you
want.

If you want something to display a dialog try zentiy (install zenity).

        apt-cache show dpkg | zenity --text-info --width=800 --height=600

There are a HUGE amount of things you can do with Zenity. I have a
backup script that send info to me using zenity.

apt-cache also has immense searching capacity. All without "root".

Here I'll attempt a small 4 line script that accepts 2 values "apt-cache
action" and "term to be acted upon"


-----cut vvvv
        #!/bin/bash
        set -e
        TITLE="$1 of $2"
        apt-cache $1 $2 | zenity --text-info --title="$TITLE" --width=800 --height=600
-----cut ^^^^



I put this in $HOMEDIR/bin that is part of my $PATH. I named it "myinfo"
and made it executable (chmod +x myinfo). It allows things like:

        myinfo search evolution

or

        myinfo show evolution

If you are in GNOME, ALT+F2 using that dialog use "myinfo show
evolution" and a GUI dialog comes back for you. You are not limited to
just "show" or "search", you can use any of the functions, like "policy"
or "rdepends" etc...

It gives you a good start to understand why the command line is so
powerful. Remember, this little script is just a very small example
which can be expanded upon to nearly zero limits. Though it clearly has
some limits right now, one case in point: no error handling.


-- 
greg, greg@gregfolkert.net

Novell's Directory Services is a competitive product to Microsoft's
Active Directory in much the same way that the Saturn V is a competitive
product to those dinky little model rockets that kids light off down at
the playfield. -- Thane Walkup