Bug#904678: dpkg-reconfigure apt-file ought to give me sources contents

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Package: apt-file
Version: 3.1.4
Severity: wishlist

Ansgar has just told me about Contents-sources.gz.  Wow!  But this has
apparently existed for years and I never knew.  This bug report is
about the fact that it is rather harder to use than would be ideal.
The README.md.gz says

    - The "-a" option cannot be used with "source" or "udeb-$ARCH".
      Please use the new "--index-names" option.  Remember to
      configure APT to download the extra Contents files.

This is enough of a hint to find some things, I guess, but it would be
nice if:

 * dpkg-reconfigure apt-file were able to edit
    /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50apt-file.conf
   (or maybe there would be some other way to easily do this).

 * apt-file -a source, or apt-file --source, or something,
   worked.  Experimenting, I discover that the syntax I wantedd was
     --index-names=dsc

Thanks,
Ian.

-- 
Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>   These opinions are my own.

If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.