I am working on a package admin tool in perl/tk.

> My plan is to write a tool for adding, removing and configuring NetBSD
> software packages. Also, display all installed packages and package
> dependencies -- and be able to check dependencies. And display package
> descriptions. The tool should be able to build packages from the pkgsrc
> tree or install from precompiled binary form (download or local).

I need some advice: what would be a good way to build a list of available
packages? Some ideas I have:

- check if some config datafile is within fifteen days old; if it is older
then use uname -mr and grab list of all binary packages (i.e.
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.4.2/i386) and parse it to build
datafile of available software

- build list of package names from /usr/pkgsrc/*/*

- build list from CD (which I have not done or looked for so I don't know
exact format)

The old and non-working tkpkg (from FreeBSD) uses
 pkg_info -I -c [glob -nocomplain *.{tgz,tar.z,tar.gz,tar.Z}]
I can't figure out from the script where it is looking for the files.

I also read the manpage but I can't figure out the proper usage for -I
-c. (Any examples/explanations?)

By the way, here is an image of my start:
 http://pilchuck.reedmedia.net/tmp-1552959188/screenshot-1-20000821.png

If there is a more appropriate mailing list, please let me know.

Thanks,

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://www.reedmedia.net/