Re: Tool in base to query repositories for pre-built binaries

[Stathis Kamperis <ekamperi%gmail.com@localhost>]

2010/7/26 Chuck Swiger <cswiger%mac.com@localhost>:
> Hi, all--
>
> On Jul 26, 2010, at 9:01 AM, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>>> why don't we have in base a tool (pkgin? other?) that can query a
>>> repository on whether a pre-built binary exists ? Something like
>>> apt-cache search <package>.
>>
>> It sounds useful. I suspect the reason that it does not exist is that
>> no one has been motivated to write such a tool.
>
> This sounds very much like FreeBSD ports' "pkg_add -r" capability:
>
>  http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pkg_add&sektion=1
>
> If pkgsrc doesn't have that, it might be nifty to add it...
>

Quoting from their manpage:
-r, --remote
             Use the remote fetching feature.  This will determine the appro-
             priate objformat and release and then fetch and install the pack-
             age.

So, yes, pkg_add -r would be a step forward. That said, I'd prefer
something like pkg_search of DragonFly:
http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?command=pkg_search

Sometimes you need to just query the database to see the available
packages, without installing them _at the same time_.

I was motivated from a user in #netbsd @ freenode who mistakenly
installed 'GIT' (a gnu file manager or something), instead of 'scmgit'
and then s/he wondered why 'git clone' command was unavailable :) So
it's not theoretical; it would actually be useful. E.g.

% pkg_search git
cogito-0.18.2nb2        Version control system of the Linux kernel
ggiterm-0.7.0nb1        Libggi-based terminal emulator
git-4.3.20              GNU Interactive Tools - a file system browser for
UNIX systems
gitweb-1.6.0.6          Web interface for GIT repositories
scmgit-1.6.4            GIT version control suite meta-package
scmgit-base-1.6.4       GIT Tree History Storage Tool (base package)
scmgit-docs-1.6.4       GIT Tree History Storage Tool (documentation)
stgit-0.14.3nb1         Stacked GIT
topgit-0.7              Different patch queue manager
%

Best regards,
Stathis