Re: An INCOMPLETE solution - was [Re: Where is data stored when Synaptic scans DVDs?]
On 2017-03-25, David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
> On Sat 25 Mar 2017 at 10:50:50 (+0000), Curt wrote:
>> Actually, srcpkgcache.bin includes the information contained in the files
>> in /var/lib/apt/lists; that is, all the info you obtain from the internet
>> via your deb and deb-src lines -- this information changes only on
>> apt-get update.
>>
>> pkgcache.bin caches the information in srcpkgcache.bin + the information
>> extracted from the apt and dpkg status files. This info changes on every
>> install/remove done by apt or directly by dpkg.
>>
>> The above scandalously pilfered from David Kalnischkies here:
>>
>> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=566275
>
> Thanks for the useful reference. Whether it ties in to what apt-cdrom
> does, I don't know and have no way of testing.
It ties in to the context that you snipped; i.e. "the two .bin files in
/var/cache/apt" and how you found it "tricky to check what's actually
in them."
Well, maybe it is tricky to "check" but not to know what's in those two
files (if we can depend on the other David), a distinction that may not
be of much use or significance.
>> You can run 'strings' on pkgcache.bin BTW.
>>
>> curty@einstein:/var/cache/apt$ strings pkgcache.bin | less
>>
>> Standard .deb
>> amd64
>> /var/lib/apt/lists/httpredir.debian.org_debian_dists_wheezy_main_binary-amd64_Packages
>> httpredir.debian.org
>> Debian Package Index
>> 0~r11863-2
>> games
>> 0ad-data
>> 0~r11863
>> 0~r11863-2
>> gamin
>> libboost-signals1.49.0
>> 1.49.0-1
>> libc6
>> 2.11
>> libcurl3-gnutls
>> <etc>
>>
>> It doesn't appear that tricky.
>
> What doesn't?
>
> Getting a ¼million-line output file is straightforward, but
> have you tried to interpret it? What do you think it shows?
>
Package names, versions, 'Description-md5' as far as I can tell is what
is "actually" and obviously contained in the file, verifiable with very
little effort via 'strings', beyond that I ain't gonna go because I have
other things to do. Sorry I'm writing the story of my life and there are
many many chapters.
--
"It might be a vision--of a shell, of a wheelbarrow, of a fairy kingdom on the
far side of the hedge; or it might be the glory of speed; no one knew." --Mrs.
Ramsay, speculating on why her little daughter might be dashing about, in "To
the Lighthouse," by Virginia Woolf.
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