Re: aptitude search: What exactly does `~S` (aka `~narrow`) do?
On Fri, 13 Feb 2015, Kynn Jones wrote:
> The [documentation][1] for `~S` says:
> > ?narrow(filter, pattern), ~S filter pattern
> >
> > This term “narrows” the search to package versions matching
> > filter. In particular, it matches any package version which
> > matches both filter and pattern. The string value of the match is
> > the string value of pattern.
>
> I have not been able to find any definition in this documentation of
> what it means by the term "filter", and how this term differs from the
> term "pattern". Therefore, it looks like the paragraph above is,
> strictly speaking, meaningless.
The critical bit that you're missing from this paragraph is "versions".
See
http://algebraicthunk.net/~dburrows/projects/aptitude/doc/en/ch02s03s03.html
for details.
> All of the above would suggest to me that the `~S` is superfluous, and
> that, for example, the following two commands would produce identical
> results:
>
> % aptitude search '~i!~Astable'
This means "installed packages which are not in stable at all".
> % aptitude search '~S~i!~Astable'
This means "installed package where the same version is not available in
stable"
--
Don Armstrong http://www.donarmstrong.com
Cheop's Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
-- Robert Heinlein _Time Enough For Love_ p242
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