Last summer I wrote a deb file browser for emacs. I'm sure it will be made obsolete by the deity project but it may be of use to some people until then. Apparently MC has similar functionality.
Somewhere along the way deb-view stopped differentiating between new and old style deb files on Debian systems because the "file" command now recognizes deb file formats specifically. This release of V1.3 fixes this problem. There aren't any package install features, just smart browsing and the ability to copy individual files out of the archive. At the time many people suggested that this could/should go into "contrib" or someplace so that it gets included into the Debian distribution. This was never done. Here is the original announcement, modified to mention that it also views HTML files using w3.el. --- snip --- Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 17:07:39 -0600 From: Rick Macdonald <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: deb-view.el: emacs tool for browsing deb files! I've written a tool for emacs that allows one to browse deb files. It's nice to peek at a package file and read the doc, man pages, install scripts, file list, etc, without installing it first. You can even copy files out of a deb archive if you want to! Why emacs? Because most of the smarts to do this stuff was already in emacs. I just gathered it together in a simple but clever way for Debian users! ;-) Emacs users will recognize "tar-mode", the emacs feature that that I'm exploiting. Here's sort of what it looks like on the screen. To view any file, just go to that line and press "v". If it's a man page file, press "N". Press "W" to view HTML. It doesn't matter is the file is compressed (.gz); it uncompresses automatically on the fly. Press "c" to copy an individual file out of the archive! =============================================================== Buffers Files Tools Search Operate Mark Immediate Help drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 ./ -rw-r--r-- root/root 441 control -rw-r--r-- root/root 13 conffiles -rwxr-xr-x root/root 1459 postinst -----C37 L2 Emacs: sudo_1.4.3-5.deb-INFO (Tar Narrow)--All--- drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 ./ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 etc/ -r--r----- root/root 280 etc/sudoers drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/bin/ -rwxr-sr-x root/root 41996 usr/bin/sudo drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/man/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/man/man8/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 4782 usr/man/man8/sudo.8.gz -rw-r--r-- root/root 3257 usr/man/man8/visudo.8.gz drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/man/man5/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 5289 usr/man/man5/sudoers.5.gz drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/sbin/ -rwxr-xr-x root/root 24596 usr/sbin/visudo drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/doc/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/doc/copyright/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 1282 usr/doc/copyright/sudo drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/doc/examples/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/doc/examples/sudo/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 2572 usr/doc/examples/sudo/sudoers drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 usr/doc/sudo/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 2335 usr/doc/sudo/FAQ.gz -rw-r--r-- root/root 2398 usr/doc/sudo/debian.OPTIONS.gz --**-C37 L9 Emacs: sudo_1.4.3-5.deb-DATA (Tar narrow)--All--- =============================================================== The lisp file is about 300 lines long. I decided not to post it to the list, for fear of annoying non-emacs users, so I've put it up on a web server. Sorry, I don't have anonymous ftp for you. The file is about 13KB. http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~macdonal/deb-view.el If you can't get at it, I can email it to you. Note that deb-view works for the current and past formats of the Debian file format. As the deb file evolves, I hope I can continue to provide this tool. One thing that I'm missing is a way for future Debian newcomers to know about this tool. Suggestions welcome. I hope some of you find this useful! ...RickM... -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .