Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Dave Heistand
> $ pacman -Slq core > core-old.txt
> # pacman -Sy
> $ pacman -Slq core > core-new.txt
> $ diff core-new.txt core-old.txt

Sweet!  Between that and the rss feeds I'm good to go!

Thanks all!



Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Abhishek Dasgupta
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 8:55 PM, Dave Heistand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Such a diff would tell me things like (output
>
> Packages removed from package tree/ftp servers:
> firefox (installed)
> foobar (not installed)
>
> Packages added to tree/ftp servers
> iceweasel (not installed)
> tmpwatch (not installed)

Pacman stores all the repository data in
/var/lib/pacman/sync/{repository}

Also pacman has a feature of listing all the packages in a
particular repository:
pacman -Slq {repository}
The -q is for suppressing the version information. So, to check the
differences in say the core repository you could do:

$ pacman -Slq core > core-old.txt
# pacman -Sy
$ pacman -Slq core > core-new.txt
$ diff core-new.txt core-old.txt



Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Xavier
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 5:25 PM, Dave Heistand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Such a diff would tell me things like (output
>
> Packages removed from package tree/ftp servers:
> firefox (installed)
> foobar (not installed)
>
> Packages added to tree/ftp servers
> iceweasel (not installed)
> tmpwatch (not installed)
>
> Packages that need to be upgraded
> xorg (installed version 1, available version 1.2)
> cowsay (similar to above))
> sysstat (similar to above)
>
> No big deal if there is no tool, I'll just need to check out the
> packages web page more often.
>

there is the rss feeds too :
http://archlinux.org/feeds/packages/



Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Dave Heistand
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 03:40:11PM +0200, Dennis Herbrich wrote:
> > What I'm looking for is a way to see a diff of my package cache prior to
> > and just after syncing, i.e. what packages are out of date (which pacman
> > does show), what packages have been removed from the repositories since my
> > last sync and what packages have been added to the repository since my
> > last sync.
> 
> To my knowledge, no developer supported package doing this is available,
> but there may be very well a host of shell scripts in one of the TURs
> fulfilling your requirements, more or less (likely less ;]). Some CVS
> magic on the ABS-tree may be the way to go, though, it's all in there. You
> just need to keep/extract the date of your last sync operation.

Thanks for the fast reply!

I may have not been clear in my description.  A diff of a snapshot of my
local package tree/database (what pacman -Ss uses) prior to syncing and
then a diff my local package tree/database after.

Such a diff would tell me things like (output 

Packages removed from package tree/ftp servers:
firefox (installed)
foobar (not installed)

Packages added to tree/ftp servers
iceweasel (not installed)
tmpwatch (not installed)

Packages that need to be upgraded
xorg (installed version 1, available version 1.2)
cowsay (similar to above))
sysstat (similar to above)

No big deal if there is no tool, I'll just need to check out the
packages web page more often.

> http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Custom_local_repository
> 
> I've looked over it right now, and this is the way to go, using repo-add
> and repo-remove.

Perfect! Thanks again!



Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Xavier
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 5:04 PM, Dan McGee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Arch in 99% of cases uses mandir=/usr/share/man, sysconfdir=/etc, and
> never installs things under /usr/local. We don't want to enforce
> things like that at the makepkg level however, you are free to build
> local package however you like.
>

This reminds me the $prefix proposal we had on pacman-dev...
http://www.archlinux.org/pipermail/pacman-dev/2008-June/012052.html

I don't know what to think about this idea of having more variables anymore.

Just having these variables available don't enforce their usage. But
if they were widely used, the whole thing would probably be more
flexible.
For example, I suppose the /usr/man -> /usr/share/man transition would
have gone smoother.



Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Dan McGee
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 9:52 AM, Dave Heistand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 04:16:07PM +0200, Xavier wrote:
>> On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Dave Heistand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> >
>> > To me Arch package building is refreshing when compared to my experiences 
>> > with
>> > ebuilds and rpm spec files.  I can't seem to find a list of all the 
>> > varibles
>> > that can be used in a PKGBUILD script though (like $startdir etc), where 
>> > would
>> > I find that info?
>> >
>>
>> This is missing in the PKGBUILD man page :
>> http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/10634
>
> Great, that's what I was looking for.  So, there is nothing like
> $mandir, $sysconfdir etc as there is in spec files?  Just want to be
> sure.

Arch in 99% of cases uses mandir=/usr/share/man, sysconfdir=/etc, and
never installs things under /usr/local. We don't want to enforce
things like that at the makepkg level however, you are free to build
local package however you like.

-Dan



Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Dave Heistand
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 04:16:07PM +0200, Xavier wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Dave Heistand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > To me Arch package building is refreshing when compared to my experiences 
> > with
> > ebuilds and rpm spec files.  I can't seem to find a list of all the varibles
> > that can be used in a PKGBUILD script though (like $startdir etc), where 
> > would
> > I find that info?
> >
> 
> This is missing in the PKGBUILD man page :
> http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/10634

Great, that's what I was looking for.  So, there is nothing like
$mandir, $sysconfdir etc as there is in spec files?  Just want to be
sure.

Thanks for the prompt response.



Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Xavier
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Dave Heistand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> To me Arch package building is refreshing when compared to my experiences with
> ebuilds and rpm spec files.  I can't seem to find a list of all the varibles
> that can be used in a PKGBUILD script though (like $startdir etc), where would
> I find that info?
>

This is missing in the PKGBUILD man page :
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/10634



Re: [arch-general] new arch user, questions about package management

2008-06-11 Thread Dennis Herbrich
On Wed, June 11, 2008 14:45, Dave Heistand wrote:
> Hi,
Greetings!

> What I'm looking for is a way to see a diff of my package cache prior to
> and just after syncing, i.e. what packages are out of date (which pacman
> does show), what packages have been removed from the repositories since my
> last sync and what packages have been added to the repository since my
> last sync.

To my knowledge, no developer supported package doing this is available,
but there may be very well a host of shell scripts in one of the TURs
fulfilling your requirements, more or less (likely less ;]). Some CVS
magic on the ABS-tree may be the way to go, though, it's all in there. You
just need to keep/extract the date of your last sync operation.


> To me Arch package building is refreshing when compared to my experiences
> with ebuilds and rpm spec files.  I can't seem to find a list of all the
> varibles that can be used in a PKGBUILD script though (like $startdir
> etc), where would I find that info?

Your best bet is 'man PKGBUILD'. You may, of course, define your own
variables to use throughout the build process if you need any. Prefixing
those with something (common choice is an underscore) to prevent name
clashes helps, though. The Wiki elaborates on this in the packaging
guidelines a bit.


> If I end up totally switching I want to make my own repository (like a
> yum or apt repository) of my custom packages for the systems I manage.  I
> think I've seen a few pages on how to set that up but if there is an
> authoritative page someone knows of I'd appreciate it.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Custom_local_repository

I've looked over it right now, and this is the way to go, using repo-add
and repo-remove.

To paraphrase the wiki page, just throw all packages you want to keep in
your repository into an invariant directory, possibly using the PKGDEST
variable in your build machine's /etc/makepkg.conf (see manpage for
details), and run repo-add to define the name of the .db.tar.gz file
in that directory, as well as all packages that shall be indexed
(wildcards help).  is then, by definition, the name by which your
repository will have to be referenced in /etc/pacman.conf files. Sharing
this directory via http/ftp is straightforward.

Syncing will then consider your repo, and you may install explicitly
versions from your repo by using the lesser known 'pacman -Sy
/mypackage' syntax, where an explicit repo name is prefixed.

> I've been running arch on my laptop and home system for almost a week now
> and I am very happy with the results so far.

That's always nice to hear!
I always considered Arch's packaging one of the distribution's strong points.

> Thanks in advance for your help,
> Dave

You're welcome,
  Dennis