Hi, as you probably have seen we (finally!) have two library packages in the apt version in experimental (libapt-pkg4.10 and libapt-inst1.2). This is in preparation for some ABI break merges that we want to handle as smooth as possible (lots of great stuff comming).
The current package description for the library packages is very short and needs improvement. Christian Perrier opened bug http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=624618 about this a while ago with some interessting discussions. I tried to destile the dicsussion from #624618 here with a new attempt for the description: Package: apt Description: Debian's advanced package tool APT provides mechanisms for package management tasks like searching, querying and managing deb packages from one or more package repoistories. . It supports: * searching for package information; * resolving package install requests, finding the appropriate version in the archives; * fetching packages along with all their required dependencies; * authenticating the sources and validating the retrieved data; * installing and removing packages on a working system. . It also provides various terminal-based tools on its own: * apt-get for managing packages and retrieval of information * apt-cache for querying available information * apt-cdrom to use removable media as a source for packages * apt-config as an interface to the configuration settings * apt-key as an interface to manage authentication keys """ Note: Also I have to say that I'm not happy with the two bullet lists, one is probably enough, the other should be just text. But for the second I would like to have the name of all the tools in it. Better suggestions welcome. """ Package: libapt-pkg4.10 Description: Package search and manipulation library for apt This package contains the libapt_pkg library that is used by apt. I exposes functionality for use by higher-level interfaces like aptitude, synaptic, python-apt and others. Package: libapt-inst1.2 Description: Deb query and manipulation library for apt This package contains the libapt_inst library used by apt-utils to query deb packages for information. Its used by apt-ftparchive, python-apt and others. Package: apt-doc Description: Documentation for APT This package contains the user guide and offline guide, for the advanced package tool APT. Both a html and a text version are included. Package: libapt-pkg-dev Description: Development files for APT's libapt-pkg and libapt-inst This package contains the header files and libraries for developing with APT's libapt-pkg Debian package manipulation library and the libapt-inst deb/tar/ar library. Package: libapt-pkg-doc Description: Documentation for APT development This package contains documentation for development of the APT Debian package manipulation program and its libraries. . This includes the source code documentation generated by doxygen in html format. Package: apt-utils Description: APT utility programs This package contains some APT utility programs such as apt-ftparchive, apt-sortpkgs and apt-extracttemplates. . apt-extracttemplates is used by debconf to prompt for configuration questions before installation. apt-ftparchive is used to create Package and other index files. apt-sortpkgs is a Package/Source file normalizer. Package: apt-transport-https Description: APT https transport This package contains a APT https transport. It makes it possible to use 'deb https://foo distro main' lines in the sources.list. Ideas for improvement of this very welcome! Thanks, Michael -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org