This tool is aimed to help you find the packages you need. It should make the task of searching
a pleasant experience. Originally I designed it for the purpose of finding a single package where
you have a clear imagination of what you want. But you can also use it to simply browse and explore
your packages. Perhaps there is something in the database that you simply must have :-).
The program is not meant to be a package managment tool like synaptic. This is far beyond
its purpose. It is not able to install a single package, but if you have found the one you
where searching for, you can simply type apt-get install packagename to install it.
The main window is split into two parts:
The columns displayed in the list on the bottom left can be customized. For this purpose select Customize Columns from the context menu in the list.
The different types of search and informations available are offered by plugins. Every plugin offers a number of different search and information types. In the following I will have a closer look on the search types offerd by the plugins distributed with the application.
In the upper pane you can enter the search criterias you want to search for. The result consists of the packages which match all your active searches. Always the active searches are shown in the top left pane, so you always have an overview over the active search.
By default there are five main criterias you can use for searching:| Search by Categories (Debtags Search) |
The debtags search is based on the debtags system developed by Enrico Zini.
The main idea behind it is, that every package is characterized by a
number of categories called tags. The tags are organized in
a hierarchy, where each tag is inside a so called facet
(group of categories). Each package is given a number of such tags. E.g. the image editor gimp is tagged by interface::x11, media::rasterimage, uitoolkit::gtk, use::editing. As tagging is still under development not all packages might be tagged completely, and those tagged may not be tagged as you would expect them to be. You can select the tags you want to search for on the right side under the page Debtags. The currently selected tags will be shown on the left side where they can be removed through a context menu. |
| Search Related Packages (Related Search) |
You can search for packages related to another package using the related search.
You can select this on the right side under the page Related.
Here you can enter a package name. The search will
find all packages which have similar tags as the given one. The packages may only differ in the number of "Maximum Distance" tags from the one you entered. Or more formal: |(A union B) difference (A intersect B)| <= MaxDistance This plugin calculates scores for the result packages, based on the distance to the original package. |
| Search by Pattern (Apt Search) |
On the left side below the Search for pattern text you can enter
on or more patterns seperated by a spaces. If the "Search Descriptions" option is selected the package names and the descriptions will be searched for the patterns entered there. If not only the names will be searched. All the patterns you entered must be found. You can search for exact phrases enclosing them with double quotes and you can exclude patterns or phrases by preceding them with a minus ('-'). Note: The use of wildcards or regular expressions is not supported. This search calculates scores based on how well the search patterns where matched. exact matches and a high number of matches results in higher scores. |
| Search by Filename (Filename Search) |
With this search you can search for patterns in filenames contained in the packages. You can enter the pattern on the right side
under the page Filenames.
You can check the search installed packages only option if you
want to search only in the packages locally installed which is
generally faster than searching all packages. Additional information: Searching installed packages only uses dpkg -S as backend while searching all packages uses apt-file search. |
| Search Orphans (Orphan Search) |
This search allows to search for orphaned packages. Orphaned packages are packages were no other package depends on. In its default setting the orphan search will search only for orphaned packages in the lib and oldlib section. You can change this using the radio button in the orphan search page. Additional information: The orphan search uses deborphan as backend so make sure it is installed on your system. |
The bottom left pane shows the results of your current search. The result contains the packages
matching all the searches you have specified. The packages are shown with some short
information in the list on the left.
If you select a package you can view its details in the bottom right pane. You can either select
a package from the result list, or choose it from the dropdown list above the package
information where all packages available are listed.
You can customize the columns shown and the order of the columns by requesting a context menu in the package list and choose Customize columns. There is one special column named Scores. This column shows a value, indicating how likely it is that you want to install this package. To sort by scores, simply click on the head of the column (like you can do it with all the other columns). The scores are calculated based on criterias offered by the plugins. This can be based on the degree of a match between an active search and the packages found, or data independend of the search (like popcon data).
You can right-click on a package (request a context menu) in the result and choose an action to perform on it (like installing, removing, or creating a line to install the package).
Plugins can be controlled through the plugin menu. They can be enabled/disabled
through Plugins -> Control Plugins. The settings for the plugins
can be changed via Plugins -> Plugin Settings. The settings made will
be saved in the configuration file. In the System menu you can find system
options for the different plugins.
Note: Currently you must not disable and renable the debtags plugin twice in one
session – this will lead to crash.
The next table shows the plugins distibuted with the application, for external plugins take a look at the documentation distributed together with them. It shows the search and information types offered by the plugins.
| Apt Plugin |
|
| Debtags Plugin |
|
| Filename Plugin |
|
| Orphan Plugin |
|
From time to time the debtags database should be updated as it becomes a little out of date. This can be done either via the command line (debtags update) or using the GUI choosing System->Debtags Update. The debtags database is where the information about the tags that are assigned to each package is stored. You must be root to do this.
You can choose which facets (groups of categories) you are interested in to reduce the complexity of the list of tags. To do this, choose Plugins -> Plugin Settings and select the Debtags tab there.
For this plugin you need to update the file database which is used to perform searches for files. It can be updated either via the command line (apt-file update) or using the GUI choosing System->Apt-File Update.
If you have further questions please contact me at bensmail@gmx.net