PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

kachelaqa · 2012-02-10 18:59:59

@Bad-ptr

Could you please try the following potential fix:

$ tar -xf pkgbrowser-0.8.tar.gz 
$ cd pkgbrowser-0.8/
$ sed -i '80a #include <stdlib.h>' src/alpm.i
$ make clean && make
$ python2 main.py

NB: make sure you have swig installed before trying this

Bad_ptr · 2012-02-10 21:29:25

Oh, I'm sorry, but it seems l was not so careful as I should. :(p
I have some compiler flags in my. zshrc and it was the first thing I started to check. I commented them out, but did not notice that a few lines below the flags were redefined again... :(
After playing with compiler flags I find flag that makes pkgbrowser segfault on clicking on installed package --- it's -finline-functions flag. So I compiled pkbrowser without -finline-functions and now it's seems to work properly:) (but if I use a clang as compiler, it still segfault even without this flag).
Also I tryed: sed -i '80a #include <stdlib.h>' src/alpm.i It didn' help somehow :p

kachelaqa · 2012-02-10 22:46:40

Bad_ptr wrote:

Oh, I'm sorry, but it seems l was not so careful as I should. :(p
I have some compiler flags in my. zshrc and it was the first thing I started to check. I commented them out, but did not notice that a few lines below the flags were redefined again...
After playing with compiler flags I find flag that makes pkgbrowser segfault on clicking on installed package --- it's -finline-functions flag. So I compiled pkbrowser without -finline-functions and now it's seems to work properly:)(but if I use a clang as compiler, it still segfault even without this flag).

Glad you've got things working.

Just to be clear: if you use gcc with the default compiler flags, the segfaults go away, yes?

Also I tryed: sed -i '80a #include <stdlib.h>' src/alpm.i It didn' help somehow

Well, I did not have high hopes, but it was the best I could come up with

(Anyway, it is a bug not to include that header, so at least something got fixed).

Last edited by kachelaqa (2012-02-10 22:51:58)

Bad_ptr · 2012-02-11 06:00:08

>if you use gcc with the default compiler flags, the segfaults go away, yes
yes

kachelaqa · 2012-03-10 02:37:22

version 0.9 has been released today.

please see the pkgbrowser manual and the changelog for further details.

GSF1200S · 2012-03-11 04:50:09

kachelaqa wrote:

version 0.9 has been released today.
please see the pkgbrowser manual and the changelog for further details.

Love it! The bookmark option is very nice, and the log feature will be quite handy if I need need to go back to a different package version.

Just keeps getting better...

zebulon · 2012-03-13 09:09:39

Very nice!

twau · 2012-03-15 14:02:39

Well done! It would be cool to be able to vote for AUR packages.

karol · 2012-03-15 14:15:57

twau wrote:

Well done! It would be cool to be able to vote for AUR packages.

You can use aurvote ;P
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=9845

theGunslinger · 2012-03-15 14:18:41

twau wrote:

Well done! It would be cool to be able to vote for AUR packages.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=9845

Edit: ah, beat me to it

Last edited by theGunslinger (2012-03-15 14:19:10)

kachelaqa · 2012-03-15 19:02:04

twau wrote:

Well done! It would be cool to be able to vote for AUR packages.

thanks for the feedback.

voting for aur packages from pkgbrowser is already very easy, so i don't think anything needs to be added.

if your browser has the facility to remember usernames/passwords (as with firefox, which i use), it can be done with two or three mouse clicks:

1. click the AUR Url in the Details section (which opens the package page in your browser)
2. click the Login button on the package page (if you aren't logged in already)
3. click the Vote button on the package page

however, there is a small bug here that i've just noticed: pkgbrowser doesn't currently use https login, so there's an unnecessary extra click required!

this will be fixed in the next version of pkgbrowser.

davidovitch · 2012-04-07 11:44:35

Just want to give an heads up for this very useful tool! Thanks for creating and maintaining it! Voter nr 89 ;-)

davidovitch · 2012-04-15 09:01:49

I would like to propose to include the pacman cache (if activated in /etc/pacman.conf) in pkgbrowser:
* include a repository database icon in the upper left window containing the pacman cache database. That would give you a quick overview of which older versions of certain packages are still available locally. When a package needs to be downgraded this might come in handy in my opinion.
* Tools > show statistics could also mention how many packages in total (where each different version has a count) are present and how much disc space the cache is consuming.

Not sure how feasible this is though.

GSF1200S · 2012-04-16 04:34:27

davidovitch wrote:

I would like to propose to include the pacman cache (if activated in /etc/pacman.conf) in pkgbrowser:
* include a repository database icon in the upper left window containing the pacman cache database. That would give you a quick overview of which older versions of certain packages are still available locally. When a package needs to be downgraded this might come in handy in my opinion.
* Tools > show statistics could also mention how many packages in total (where each different version has a count) are present and how much disc space the cache is consuming.
Not sure how feasible this is though.

I definitely like your first suggestion- I dont hold many packages back, but when I need to downgrade one i have to either open /var/cache/pacman/cache or run Downgrade from the terminal to see whats available for a package in cache. We'll see...

Also, just wanted to throw out that the log function now built-in has become a staple of my troubleshooting now- makes it so much easier not having to open pacman.log in geany to search for the latest updates to certain packages. Loving that addition..

kachelaqa · 2012-04-16 17:30:35

davidovitch wrote:

* include a repository database icon in the upper left window containing the pacman cache database. That would give you a quick overview of which older versions of certain packages are still available locally. When a package needs to be downgraded this might come in handy in my opinion.

The pacman cache isn't a database: it's just a directory containing the *.tar.xz files that were used to install packages. It is possible to load these files directly using libalpm. However, the performance is horrible because each file has to be (partially) decompressed in order to extract the package information. If you update often, the cache can easily grow to tens of thousands files if it isn't cleaned out regularly - so there is a significant performance issue with attempting to treat the cache like a repository database.

However, even without the performance issues, I don't really think this is worth adding to pkgbrowser - because I don't see a genuine use-case for it.

Rather than attempting to give an overview of the entire cache, I think a much more useful feature would be to add an information tab which shows the available downgrades for each package. This would just display a simple list of packages from the local cache and A.R.M (i.e. very similar to the output produced by downgrader scripts like this one).

* Tools > show statistics could also mention how many packages in total (where each different version has a count) are present and how much disc space the cache is consuming.

This functionality is beyond the scope of pkgbrowser - it belongs in a dedicated cache-management utility.

davidovitch · 2012-04-16 22:23:50

kachelaqa wrote:

Rather than attempting to give an overview of the entire cache, I think a much more useful feature would be to add an information tab which shows the available downgrades for each package. This would just display a simple list of packages from the local cache and A.R.M (i.e. very similar to the output produced by downgrader scripts like this one).

That would be exactly the functionality I was pointing to. I agree it sounds more sensible compared to skimming a possible huge list of packages and decompressing them to read the package info file.

kachelaqa wrote:

This functionality is beyond the scope of pkgbrowser - it belongs in a dedicated cache-management utility.

I agree it is consistent with the lean and clean goals you set out for pkgbrowser. For what its worth, personally, I like the idea of having all package related stuff together in one application, including the cache. But that's just an opinion and by no means a critique on pkgbrowser.

kachelaqa · 2012-04-17 00:37:57

davidovitch wrote:

That would be exactly the functionality I was pointing to. I agree it sounds more sensible compared to skimming a possible huge list of packages and decompressing them to read the package info file.

Okay - I will certainly have a look at this for the next version of pkgbrowser (not sure when that will be though, as I am working on other things at the moment).

davidovitch wrote:

For what its worth, personally, I like the idea of having all package related stuff together in one application, including the cache. But that's just an opinion and by no means a critique on pkgbrowser.

All feedback (including criticism) is always welcome

kachelaqa · 2012-04-29 17:47:53

version 0.9.1 has been released today.

please see the pkgbrowser changelog for further details.

kachelaqa · 2012-05-04 19:34:08

version 0.10 has been released today.

please see the pkgbrowser manual and the changelog for further details.

GSF1200S · 2012-05-05 04:09:18

I thought I was going to have a weird bug for you, but im not sure if its a bug or what. The only options available when "Include AUR" is selected is Plain Match, Wildcard search, and Maintainer (under keys). Everything under scope is fine. When I deselect "Include AUR", all other options become available to be selected. There is no mention of this in the manual, so perhaps throw in a mention by the area where you make the Include AUR at startup option a note?

I suppose I could say it would be cool if pkgbrowser could simply ignore the AUR for things that it wont search the AUR for (like to find out what package owns a file, etc), that way one wouldnt need to deselect the Include AUR box everytime they wanted to use one of the options not available with it selected.

That said, im all for keeping it simple- maybe just a manual note (so people wont think its a bug)? Love the cache feature you added, so thank you

kachelaqa · 2012-05-06 17:17:42

GSF1200S wrote:

I thought I was going to have a weird bug for you, but im not sure if its a bug or what. The only options available when "Include AUR" is selected is Plain Match, Wildcard search, and Maintainer (under keys). Everything under scope is fine. When I deselect "Include AUR", all other options become available to be selected. There is no mention of this in the manual, so perhaps throw in a mention by the area where you make the Include AUR at startup option a note?

No, it's certainly not a bug - PkgBrowser has always worked that way. The search options for the AUR are limited to what is available via the AurJson interface. And, in general, the UI just doesn't allow invalid combinations of search options to be selected (in fact, if it does, that probably is a bug).

I don't feel anything needs to be added to the manual. PkgBrowser is just an integrated GUI front-end to functionality that is available elsewhere via various comand-line and web-based tools. It is simply assumed that users are already familiar with such tools, and have a general idea how they work and what they can be used for.

I suppose I could say it would be cool if pkgbrowser could simply ignore the AUR for things that it wont search the AUR for (like to find out what package owns a file, etc), that way one wouldnt need to deselect the Include AUR box everytime they wanted to use one of the options not available with it selected.

I think that would tend to blur the distinction between official and unofficial packages too much. Given the nature of the AUR, I feel there should always be an explicit step required to include it.

GSF1200S · 2012-05-06 18:59:26

kachelaqa wrote:

GSF1200S wrote:
I thought I was going to have a weird bug for you, but im not sure if its a bug or what. The only options available when "Include AUR" is selected is Plain Match, Wildcard search, and Maintainer (under keys). Everything under scope is fine. When I deselect "Include AUR", all other options become available to be selected. There is no mention of this in the manual, so perhaps throw in a mention by the area where you make the Include AUR at startup option a note?
No, it's certainly not a bug - PkgBrowser has always worked that way. The search options for the AUR are limited to what is available via the AurJson interface. And, in general, the UI just doesn't allow invalid combinations of search options to be selected (in fact, if it does, that probably is a bug).
I don't feel anything needs to be added to the manual. PkgBrowser is just an integrated GUI front-end to functionality that is available elsewhere via various comand-line and web-based tools. It is simply assumed that users are already familiar with such tools, and have a general idea how they work and what they can be used for.
I suppose I could say it would be cool if pkgbrowser could simply ignore the AUR for things that it wont search the AUR for (like to find out what package owns a file, etc), that way one wouldnt need to deselect the Include AUR box everytime they wanted to use one of the options not available with it selected.
I think that would tend to blur the distinction between official and unofficial packages too much. Given the nature of the AUR, I feel there should always be an explicit step required to include it.

Just thought I would mention it. I usually leave the Include AUR enabled on startup, and mainly use pkgbrowser to search for packages I need info about (dependencies, packages that might have bugs, etc); stuff like what package owns a file, etc I usually just use pkgtools from the command line. It does make sense in terms of how the interface is designed, and works great for me- I was just thinking in terms of someone who may not realize the Include AUR option changes available options. Weve had this discussion before- you *shrug* and I ask for manual additions, haha

davidovitch · 2012-05-15 12:14:00

Nice to see that the package cache made it into the new release.

Than another small feature request/idea :-) I am not sure if it has been proposed before or not, but here goes: highlighting the flagged-out-of-date and orphaned packages from the AUR in the details tab (for instance with a red background or something). It immediately points you to the fact your are looking into a outdated or orphaned package.

kachelaqa · 2012-05-15 17:03:06

davidovitch wrote:

I am not sure if it has been proposed before or not, but here goes: highlighting the flagged-out-of-date and orphaned packages from the AUR in the details tab (for instance with a red background or something). It immediately points you to the fact your are looking into a outdated or orphaned package.

How would you use that information? Would you want to avoid the packages that are highlighted?

Maybe adding some filters for out-of-date and orphaned packages (i.e. like the AUR search page) would be a better solution.

davidovitch · 2012-06-19 08:36:25

Sorry for the late reply.

In some cases, the AUR contains several variants of one package. Some are maintained, others are not, and at one point I only realized after installing I got an old or outdated package. This use case came up when installing my system, and being new to Arch I spent a lot of time finding the right packages for me. That is obviously less of an issue now my system stabilized a bit.

I agree with that the filter would be smarter in case you want to see which packages are lagging behind. Especially for AUR packages this might be handy to know since it is possible that some maintainer lost track/interest in the respective package.

Last edited by davidovitch (2012-06-19 08:37:40)

Arch Linux

#101 2012-02-10 18:59:59

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#102 2012-02-10 21:29:25

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#103 2012-02-10 22:46:40

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#104 2012-02-11 06:00:08

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#105 2012-03-10 02:37:22

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#106 2012-03-11 04:50:09

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#107 2012-03-13 09:09:39

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#108 2012-03-15 14:02:39

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#109 2012-03-15 14:15:57

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#110 2012-03-15 14:18:41

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#111 2012-03-15 19:02:04

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#112 2012-04-07 11:44:35

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#113 2012-04-15 09:01:49

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#114 2012-04-16 04:34:27

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#115 2012-04-16 17:30:35

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#116 2012-04-16 22:23:50

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#117 2012-04-17 00:37:57

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#118 2012-04-29 17:47:53

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#119 2012-05-04 19:34:08

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#120 2012-05-05 04:09:18

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#121 2012-05-06 17:17:42

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#122 2012-05-06 18:59:26

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#123 2012-05-15 12:14:00

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#124 2012-05-15 17:03:06

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

#125 2012-06-19 08:36:25

Re: PkgBrowser: A utility for browsing pacman databases and the AUR

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