Re: [tlug] Synaptic 17,316 Packages

[Alain Hoang <hoanga@example.com>]

Edward Middleton wrote:
> Lyle H Saxon wrote:
>   
>> I'm wondering if there is a list of all
>> the packages, along with a description of each?  
>>   
>>     
> I use dselect on debian.  Is that available on ubuntu.
>   
    Huh?  How does dselect get you a text file with a short description 
of all the packages?  It's
merely a frontend package manager tool that outputs to the console.  
While it is true it gives
you a listing of packages, it is NOT a text file and you have to learn 
the dselect interface (yuck)
to be able to navigate.  Although, learning how to use dselect might not 
be a bad thing but
I've found 'apt-get' and 'apt-cache search' to be more efficient once 
you get enough
buzzwords into your personal jargon.

    Lyle, if you REALLY want a text file to look through try poking 
around in /var/lib/dpkg (at
least in Debian).  The file you can look for is called 'available'.   
Note that the Debian
toolsets (which Ubuntu is built on) rely on these files to get package 
management to work
so open it READ ONLY.  If you accidentally bork one of these files by 
writing into it, I
imagine the package manager will break in really weird ways.

example:
$ cd /var/lib/dpkg
$ ls
alternatives   cmethopt        info     parts             status
available      diversions      lock     statoverride      status-old
available-old  diversions-old  methods  statoverride-old  updates

    You can use your text editor to look at the file and scan for 
packages that might
be interesting.  However, look don't touch.

Cheers,
Alain