On Jul 4, 2012, at 5:37 PM, Mike Meyer wrote: > On Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:34:13 -0700 > Doug Barton <[email protected]> wrote: >>> As a first prototype, the database could just be a text file >>> and the look up program could be a shell script that uses >>> grep and sed. >> Right-O. The db should almost certainly be updated and distributed as >> part of the (already automated) INDEX generation and distribution process. > > There are already tools in the ports tree that do the > search. Personally, I use portsearch.
Very close. Unfortunately, portsearch seems to require an installed /usr/ports tree. A system that generated a database and searched that database would be useful also by people who preferred packages over ports. > Tweaking them to use INDEX (or > tweaking the makefile to generate their database with INDEX) should be > straightforward. INDEX can't be used in its current form because it doesn't have filenames (just port names). But yes, a lot of the key pieces already exist in various places. Just need someone to piece it together and make it actually work. I still think this would be a good addition to the base system and would like to see it included in the standard release ISOs so that new FreeBSD users can more quickly find the software they expect. I'm curious whether the earlier objections were due to misunderstandings about auto-install. Auto-install would be problematic, but the feature being discussed here does not require installation. Just better error messages. Tim _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[email protected]"
