Re: Packages web page, was Re: Aptitude package manager "package"
Good morning.. :) I just noticed Webmaster was CC'd here. I left that
in place because who knows when it comes to various Debian features
evolving their perks over time.. :)
On 1/24/18, David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
> On Wed 24 Jan 2018 at 10:53:17 (+0100), tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 10:21:45AM +0100, Floris wrote:
>> > Op Tue, 23 Jan 2018 20:44:19 +0100 schreef OECT T
>> > <oect_1964@hotmail.com>:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> > >I searched into Synaptics package manager and noticed that the
>> > >package is not marked with the Debian icon >indicating that the
>> > >package is not supported.
>> > >
>> > On my system (Debian sid) aptitude has the Debian logo in synaptics.
>>
>> Folks, learn to use the web site. Just surf over to [1] and you can
>> query the current package database. For example, entering "aptitude"
>> into the form and choosing "any" as Distribution shows you what
>> distributions carry aptitude as a package [2] (and which versions
>> of said package are in each distrib).
>> [1] https://packages.debian.org/
>> [2]
>> https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=aptitude&searchon=names&suite=all§ion=all
>
> Hm. I had occasion to go to ¹ yesterday. (In passing, if I remove the
> word "index", I end up at a different page ² but the results are the
> same.) With the defaults (package names/stetch/any) I typed syslog.
Sometime in the past, I accidentally figured out that it's trained to
redirect to search if you simply attach a sought after package name to
the end, e.g.
https://packages.debian.org/aptitude
That redirects to:
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=aptitude
That feature's primary benefit is that the initial URL is short and
thus *cognitively friendly* to remember for the more generic of
searches. Yes, that's for simple, head on searches. No, that method is
not handy when one is trying to dig deeper in for answers.
> With only 29 matches returned, I was surprised to also get the message
> "Your keyword was too generic, for optimizing reasons some results
> might have been suppressed. Please consider using a longer keyword or
> more keywords." ³
I get that... A LOT... lol
> OK, so syslog-ng seems to have more heads than a hydra, but what was
> more concerning was that there was no mention of rsyslog (which was
> what I was really interested in).
>
> So forget using this page for anything really vague like kernel-image,
PERFECT example. kernel-image is the one that sent it into serious
tizzies for me a couple months ago. Whatever I encountered overwhelmed
it so much that I either tossed the search to the side to try again
later or reverted back to digging around in apt-cache that day.
> even if you set suite, section and then architecture; it can't even
> show you the most basic generic versions like linux-image-686-pae, but
> only "You have searched for packages that [sic] names contain kernel-image
> in suite(s) stretch, all★ sections, and architecture(s) amd64." and
> "Your keyword was too generic. Please consider using a longer keyword
> or more keywords."
>
> ★ yes, selecting the architecture widens the sections back to all.
>
> ¹
> https://packages.debian.org/index
> ²
> https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages
> ³
> https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=syslog&searchon=names&suite=stretch§ion=all
I'm not sure why I do end up on packages.debian.org occasionally. I
primarily rely on "apt-cache search" for my own nosing around.
One thing I like about apt-cache is that you can do partial word
searches which is a *cognitively friendly* perk for me. For others,
that would be a negative perk because it brings in too much
information. A partial word example would be:
apt-cache search deskto environm
That particular perk has helped me answer at least one question here
on Debian-User, now that I think about it. Someone will be looking for
a package they absolutely cannot find. By chipping away at the end of
the sought after package name, apt-cache has eventually landed either
the correct package name or a viable alternative.
apt-cache gets a LOT of attention from me every day. For example, I've
never been 100% confident in my grasp of certain terms such as
"desktop environment" versus other concepts. Before I comment on that
topic anywhere, I sometimes turn to my apt-cache and plug that in to
make sure I'm using it correctly based on what packages apt-cache
returns for that phrase.
Another way I use apt-cache is to seek out a package that I know by
name then check out that package's description via "apt-cache show
[package-name]". I then take keywords from THAT description and plug
them back into "apt-cache search" to see if anything new looks worth
downloading for fun and giggles... not to mention potentially borking
an otherwise stable setup so as to have an excuse to check out
debootstrap yet again....... :)
Cindy :)
--
Cindy-Sue Causey
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA
* runs with duct tape *
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