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#1 2004-10-25 01:27:33

z4ziggy
Member
From: Israel
Registered: 2004-03-29
Posts: 573
Website

pacwatch

hey archers,

i had an idea about an automatic utility to watch for new package versions, using the source entry from each PKGBUILD. basicly it should format the $pkgname, $pkgver, $pkgrel and the source_url containing the pkgname or $pkgname, and then see if by 1 incremental of each version (ie, if current version is 0.0.1, it should try 0.0.2, 0.1.0, and 1.0.0) a new version can be identified. ofcourse this wont be 100% accurate, but it can help reduce package maintainers work while checking for new versions.
unfortunately, i lack bash scripting knowledge, so i hope someone might find this task usefull enough to code it.

your thoughts please.

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#2 2004-10-25 01:58:27

contrasutra
Member
From: New Jersey
Registered: 2003-07-26
Posts: 507

Re: pacwatch

Someone had emailed me a script that did this a long time ago. I told them to email one of the developers, don't know if they did.

Distrowatch also has scripts that do this. You can get in touch with them.


"Contrary to popular belief, penguins are not the salvation of modern technology.  Neither do they throw parties for the urban proletariat."

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#3 2004-10-25 02:19:00

z4ziggy
Member
From: Israel
Registered: 2004-03-29
Posts: 573
Website

Re: pacwatch

i'd love to see your sources, can u please post them?

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#4 2004-10-25 05:56:14

cactus
Taco Eater
From: t͈̫̹ͨa͖͕͎̱͈ͨ͆ć̥̖̝o̫̫̼s͈̭̱̞͍̃!̰
Registered: 2004-05-25
Posts: 4,622
Website

Re: pacwatch

well, the incremental idea you had would bo so hit or miss, that I think it would be more hassle than it is worth.
A better solution would be one of two (or a combination of) of the following solutions:
1) use wget to get the main site homepage, then use regexp to yank out the package name and version. Then you can just compare this version to the last.
2) if you know a directory (http or ftp) that has the files in it, you can just use wget to get the directory listing..then parse that for filenames, regexp, then sort...take the one off the top.

Likely it would be best to just notify the maintainer of the new version, by sending an email or something...
It would be kinduv a neat idea to have a site that watched all packages for new versions, and just yank the info off there...or to start a site that tracked versions of packages for people, and then provide people the scripts to yank the info off your site. Would be a cool community service. Maybe even have developers post the updated urls to your site too...

ideas, ideas...


"Be conservative in what you send; be liberal in what you accept." -- Postel's Law
"tacos" -- Cactus' Law
"t̥͍͎̪̪͗a̴̻̩͈͚ͨc̠o̩̙͈ͫͅs͙͎̙͊ ͔͇̫̜t͎̳̀a̜̞̗ͩc̗͍͚o̲̯̿s̖̣̤̙͌ ̖̜̈ț̰̫͓ạ̪͖̳c̲͎͕̰̯̃̈o͉ͅs̪ͪ ̜̻̖̜͕" -- -̖͚̫̙̓-̺̠͇ͤ̃ ̜̪̜ͯZ͔̗̭̞ͪA̝͈̙͖̩L͉̠̺͓G̙̞̦͖O̳̗͍

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#5 2004-10-25 06:05:20

z4ziggy
Member
From: Israel
Registered: 2004-03-29
Posts: 573
Website

Re: pacwatch

i agree directory listing is a good idea too, but i think it will be a bit more complicated than initial idea. a combination of them both will be the best solution i think, so maybe its better to start with something simpler...
and ofcourse i know its not even close to be a reliable tool - but im sure it will at least cover 50% of the job, which is always good enough for package maintainers wink

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#6 2004-10-25 09:38:50

cactus
Taco Eater
From: t͈̫̹ͨa͖͕͎̱͈ͨ͆ć̥̖̝o̫̫̼s͈̭̱̞͍̃!̰
Registered: 2004-05-25
Posts: 4,622
Website

Re: pacwatch

wget http://web.wt.net/~billw/gkrellm/ -O - | tr ">" " "| grep -oe ""gkrellm-[0-9].*tar.gz"" | tr -d """

"Be conservative in what you send; be liberal in what you accept." -- Postel's Law
"tacos" -- Cactus' Law
"t̥͍͎̪̪͗a̴̻̩͈͚ͨc̠o̩̙͈ͫͅs͙͎̙͊ ͔͇̫̜t͎̳̀a̜̞̗ͩc̗͍͚o̲̯̿s̖̣̤̙͌ ̖̜̈ț̰̫͓ạ̪͖̳c̲͎͕̰̯̃̈o͉ͅs̪ͪ ̜̻̖̜͕" -- -̖͚̫̙̓-̺̠͇ͤ̃ ̜̪̜ͯZ͔̗̭̞ͪA̝͈̙͖̩L͉̠̺͓G̙̞̦͖O̳̗͍

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#7 2004-10-25 12:49:44

paranoos
Member
From: thornhill.on.ca
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 442

Re: pacwatch

many projects are listed on sourceforge and freshmeat, which both have mailers that contact you when there are updates. other projects have "release" mailing lists, such as mplayer-release, which do the same.

all the methods listed here are, imho, hacks. this sort of information shouldn't be "pulled" by looking at ftps or websites periodically, but "pushed" by the developer via email when appropriate.

Arch also provides a way for users to inform package maintainers that there's a new version of software out.

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#8 2004-10-25 20:55:44

cactus
Taco Eater
From: t͈̫̹ͨa͖͕͎̱͈ͨ͆ć̥̖̝o̫̫̼s͈̭̱̞͍̃!̰
Registered: 2004-05-25
Posts: 4,622
Website

Re: pacwatch

in a perfect world, yes.
Last time I checked though, the world wasn't exactly a utopia.


"Be conservative in what you send; be liberal in what you accept." -- Postel's Law
"tacos" -- Cactus' Law
"t̥͍͎̪̪͗a̴̻̩͈͚ͨc̠o̩̙͈ͫͅs͙͎̙͊ ͔͇̫̜t͎̳̀a̜̞̗ͩc̗͍͚o̲̯̿s̖̣̤̙͌ ̖̜̈ț̰̫͓ạ̪͖̳c̲͎͕̰̯̃̈o͉ͅs̪ͪ ̜̻̖̜͕" -- -̖͚̫̙̓-̺̠͇ͤ̃ ̜̪̜ͯZ͔̗̭̞ͪA̝͈̙͖̩L͉̠̺͓G̙̞̦͖O̳̗͍

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