Bug#703366: RFH: apt-file -- search for files within Debian packages (command-line interface)

[Nick Black <nick.black@sprezzatech.com>]

Niels Thykier left as an exercise for the reader:
>   As understood Nick, he was not interested in maintaining the current
> Perl variant of apt-file, but he would be interested in rewriting (and
> maintain said rewrite of) apt-file.  He was certain he could improve the
> search speed of apt-file while doing so.  Given the results of his
> apt-show-versions rewrite I am looking forward to that rewrite with
> great anticipation.  :)

As discussed on #depian-APT, aye, I'm going to begin on this today, hoping
to finish it up by early next week. Apt-file has more interactions with the
APT ecosystem than apt-show-versions did, and also a larger feature set.
The core is very amenable to the design patterns that already exist.

Regarding needing to remember to run apt-file update and apt-show-versions
-i, please know that part of the RAPTORIAL design has been, from the
beginning, that these all must go. The performance numbers I posted for
apt-show-versions already reflect a cacheless case -- I'm taking no
prisoners, and lexing the plaintext package lists and status file directly.

ps: I appreciate the graciousness of the APT team in extending me this
opportunity, especially after the somewhat aggressive way I launched this
project. I think we're all on the same page, for at least the short term.

-- 
nick black     http://www.sprezzatech.com -- unix and hpc consulting
to make an apple pie from scratch, you need first invent a universe.