Package: dctrl-tools
Version: 2.24-3+b1
Severity: wishlist
File: /usr/share/man/man1/grep-dctrl.1.gz
Don't you mean "packages" instead of "paragraphs" here:
-s field,field, ... | --show-field=field,field, ...
Show only the body of these fields from the matching paragraphs.
Because, e.g.,
# grep-status -F Description -s Package -i --eregex
dummy\|transitional\|safely\ removed
Prints:
Package: debian-el
Package: imagemagick
Package: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
Package: libjpeg-dev
Package: login
Package: mime-support
Package: ttf-unifont
But both -s and -F would need to be the same for them to be in the same
paragraph.
Wait! I see,
you say:
You must give a filter expression on the command line. The filter de‐
fines which kind of paragraphs (aka package records) are output. A
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
simple filter is a search pattern along with any options that modify
and
fault, the search is a case-sensitive fixed substring match on each
paragraph (in other words, package record) in the input. With suitable
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
modifiers, this can be changed: the search can be case-insensitive and
But then for the rest of the man page, you assume that "special
definition" has been hammered down twice, which must be enough, and the
reader won't forget it.
Alas, many readers aren't reading the whole man page from top to bottom.
Just jumping in to the middle etc.
Therefore, I have a simple recommendation:
s/paragraph/package record/g for the whole page!
Then those two hammerings could be eliminated too.
In fact we see a couple of places where you are already taking my advice:
% grep-available -P foo
which is pretty much the same thing. We can also search in both de‐
scriptions and names; if match is found in either, the package record
is printed:
% grep-available -P -F Description foo
or
% grep-available -F Package -F Description foo
This kind of search is the exactly same that apt-cache does.
Here's one thing neither dpkg nor apt-cache do. Search for a string in
the whole status or available file (or any Debian control file, for
that matter) and print out all package records where we have a match.
P.S., say "if a match", not "if match".
