On Monday 21 February 2005 21:41, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: > In may cases a user may know what command (or file) they want but don't > have any idea what category or package gentoo has placed it's provider. > AFAIK, there's no way to ask portage this type of question, if there is: > how? Is an enchanment to portage for this functionality in the works; > maybe a GLEP? I understand there are difficulties to this type of > indexing in gentoo (use flags; other types of conditions in ebuilds [like > has_nptl]; etc.) but I'm sure it's possible, can any portage experts or > gentoo-devs weigh in on this? > > It seems to me that you could "simulate" an installation, record the use > flags on (well, basically anything in emerge --info) and the files / > commands created, throw that into a database and give out meaningful > information. This could either be done with some type of hetrogenous > compile farm on the gentoo end or if simulation tools are "good > enough" [1] on a single machine. > > I understand that since ebuilds can branch on arbitrary conditions and, > even if the ebuild doesn't branch, configure can cause different files to > be compiles, indexes may not be completely accurate, but they might help. > > [Alternatively, at least for common commands, this could simply be handled > by a large number of virtuals like virtual/<command>-command (E.g. > virtual/spell-command).] >
I've been thinking about the same thing for a while now. The best I can come
up with so far is to have a system which runs (voluntarily, and not by
default!) on peoples' systems and reports the file list and compilation
environment for each emerge back to a central server. That server could
analyze the data, and allow users to search for files or whatever amd return
what needs to be installed, and how (USE flags, etc.) in order to get that
file. Short of emerging every package (which is of course impossible), I don't
see another way really to do it.
--
t3h 3l3ctr0n3rd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Supermarket Deli Clerk and Student Programmer
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