Bug#624618: apt library packages & the need for improved descriptions
Hi,
as you probably have seen we (finally!) have two library packages in
the apt version in experimental (libapt-pkg4.10 and
libapt-inst1.2). This is in preparation for some ABI break merges that
we want to handle as smooth as possible (lots of great stuff comming).
The current package description for the library packages is very short
and needs improvement. Christian Perrier opened bug
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=624618 about this a
while ago with some interessting discussions. I tried to destile the
dicsussion from #624618 here with a new attempt for the description:
Package: apt
Description: Debian's advanced package tool
APT provides mechanisms for package management tasks like searching,
querying and managing deb packages from one or more package
repoistories.
.
It supports:
* searching for package information;
* resolving package install requests, finding the appropriate
version in the archives;
* fetching packages along with all their required dependencies;
* authenticating the sources and validating the retrieved data;
* installing and removing packages on a working system.
.
It also provides various terminal-based tools on its own:
* apt-get for managing packages and retrieval of information
* apt-cache for querying available information
* apt-cdrom to use removable media as a source for packages
* apt-config as an interface to the configuration settings
* apt-key as an interface to manage authentication keys
""" Note:
Also I have to say that I'm not happy with the two bullet lists, one
is probably enough, the other should be just text. But for the second
I would like to have the name of all the tools in it. Better
suggestions welcome.
"""
Package: libapt-pkg4.10
Description: Package search and manipulation library for apt
This package contains the libapt_pkg library that is used by apt.
I exposes functionality for use by higher-level interfaces like
aptitude, synaptic, python-apt and others.
Package: libapt-inst1.2
Description: Deb query and manipulation library for apt
This package contains the libapt_inst library used by apt-utils to
query deb packages for information. Its used by apt-ftparchive,
python-apt and others.
Package: apt-doc
Description: Documentation for APT
This package contains the user guide and offline guide, for the
advanced package tool APT. Both a html and a text version are
included.
Package: libapt-pkg-dev
Description: Development files for APT's libapt-pkg and libapt-inst
This package contains the header files and libraries for
developing with APT's libapt-pkg Debian package manipulation
library and the libapt-inst deb/tar/ar library.
Package: libapt-pkg-doc
Description: Documentation for APT development
This package contains documentation for development of the APT
Debian package manipulation program and its libraries.
.
This includes the source code documentation generated by doxygen
in html format.
Package: apt-utils
Description: APT utility programs
This package contains some APT utility programs such as
apt-ftparchive, apt-sortpkgs and apt-extracttemplates.
.
apt-extracttemplates is used by debconf to prompt for configuration
questions before installation. apt-ftparchive is used to create
Package and other index files. apt-sortpkgs is a Package/Source file
normalizer.
Package: apt-transport-https
Description: APT https transport
This package contains a APT https transport. It makes it possible to
use 'deb https://foo distro main' lines in the sources.list.
Ideas for improvement of this very welcome!
Thanks,
Michael
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