I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

Tigger · 2005-01-26 20:19:56

Not sure if anyone is even interested but I thought I'd throw this out there anyway.

I just created a script using bash/dialog/awk/grep for installing,removing, refreshing, and updating the system.

All it does is make a menu out of the the listing functions from pacman and gives you a scrollable menu to pick the packages you want to either install or remove.

At the moment, it only does 1 package at a time. The remove function by default will also remove the packages that depend on the one being removed. Since the choice is there with pacman, you have the option to say no anyway.

It will also refresh your package database if you choose or refresh and update the system.

I know everyone here is a CLI freak like me - lol - but I wanted an easier way to see what was available to install without having to query and grep.

I added the refresh and update just for the heck of it.

Let me know if you are interested in it. I can also add more features to it.

Edit - here is a link to the package:

http://linux.jetsue.com/pacmenu-1.4-1.pkg.tar.gz

updated the link to the newer version

Tigger · 2005-01-26 21:02:15

Xdialog can be used easily with "pacmenu" but since it isn't installed by default I didn't add that.

Does porthole work with pacman?

The whole reason arch is better than gentoo for me is that I have no desire to compile everything locally and thus binary packages are the ticket.

phrakture · 2005-01-26 21:57:51

FYI - the topic of a GUI pacman has been discussed to death
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=9335

I'll give you a summary:
The purists feel that the devs shouldn't worry about making a library version of pacman so GUIs can be developed
Others feel that it's a good idea to have a gui package manager to make it more user friendly.

I'm middle of the road - I could care less about a GUI pacman, but a pacman lib does sound promising.

Tigger · 2005-01-26 22:00:47

LOL - the difference is that I whipped up pacmenu in a few minutes compared to the time involved in sifting through porthole code and making it work with pacman.

The main purpose of pacmenu was to just provide a visual list of available packages that you can use to also choose and install a package.

I don't think it takes anything away from the whole experience, it just makes package management a little bit prettier. After all, it isn't like everyone manually edits any database files to get packages to install. It is a simple frontend to pacman - nothing more and nothing less.

Tigger · 2005-01-26 22:19:46

phrakture wrote:

FYI - the topic of a GUI pacman has been discussed to death
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=9335
I'll give you a summary:
The purists feel that the devs shouldn't worry about making a library version of pacman so GUIs can be developed
Others feel that it's a good idea to have a gui package manager to make it more user friendly.
I'm middle of the road - I could care less about a GUI pacman, but a pacman lib does sound promising.

I already knew that.

There was even a weekly FAQ about it.

Like I said, the main reason was to provide a nicer way to look at what you can install from what is available. It also removes the packages that are already installed as the pacman output doesn't do that.

It is already a done deal - it isn't like I'm thinking about it - I did it and am using it myself. It was something I wanted and I created it for myself but I thought that since I find it useful, someone else might too. I'm not trying to convert anyone - lol. As my first post states - I made it and if you want it you can have it - pretty simple and straightforward.

This whole debate about "CLI" configuring everything manually is hypocritical. The installer for arch is using bash/dialog to help things along. In that respect, pacmenu is no different.

Hey - if you want it, I'll give it to you, if you don't then no problem either. My motivations for creating it were purely selfish so if I'm the only one using it then so be it.

Zealotry of any kind has no place in mature and civilized discussions and it sickens me to see it in the Linux community especially. Seems to be a lot of it in the advanced user distros and that is a shame. Everyone has their own opinion about what is perfect for them. Everyone likes something a bit different. In all my years of running linux I have never come across exactly the same setups anywhere.

zeppelin · 2005-01-26 23:33:09

Tigger wrote:

I just created a script using bash/dialog/awk/grep for installing,removing, refreshing, and updating the system.

so where is it?

Tigger · 2005-01-27 01:04:22

I'll upload it tonight to our ftp site. I'm one of the original devs for Vector Linux so I will put it up on their ftp site for a bit.

Tigger · 2005-01-27 07:43:51

Check the first post - the link to the package is there.

dtw · 2005-01-27 08:03:30

Hello Tigger,

Good to see you Shame you got a bit toasted on your first posts here

speaking of scripting - i've been intrigued by python, wanted to try something a bit more serious than bash - what set up do you use, phrakture?

Tigger · 2005-01-27 08:41:37

I don't get put off by zealots of any kind - lol.

So this is where you have been. Glad you are still running linux

I made this for myself and if anyone else gets any use out of it then I'm glad.

You know me - I always just try and help and you know how I feel about rtfm stuff.

Arch Linux is for whomever gets use out of it. There is no test to complete before you get to download it.

Some of us like to use the PC to actually do something with it and not just spend hours tinkering and compiling.

Takes me less than a 1/2 hour to install and setup Arch how I like it with all my apps.

dtw · 2005-01-27 09:06:27

aye - this is where i have been - happily getting out what i put it

hmmm - phrakture does seem a bit highly strung at the moment...i think it was the vicious thing that pushed him over the edge tho - you can only hear people telling you pacman is hard to use so many times.

not suggesting that you are one of those people of course. i admire you for going ahead and fulfilling your own needs, rather than doing what some do and moan that other people (who aren't even remotely obliged to) aren't fufilling your needs for you.

as far as Vector goes...Arch has an fledgling i586 project and i was thinking that a combination of the Vector backwards compatibility ethos and the Arch Build System and Package Managment would create a fine new distro for those with older hardware. i'd have a crack myself if i had time and the machines - not that they can be hard to get these days - you could even chuck in a compiler farm project to speed things along.

ahhhhhh daydreams!

Kocil has done a fantastic job

cactus · 2005-01-27 09:57:28

Since you can run i586 on newer x86 hardware, it shouldn't be too difficult. Not like people would need to buy new specific hardware..
you would just need a moderately powered machine that could compile endlessly for a few days..
like....
*holds breath*
any decent gentoo install..

I just had an interesting Idea....
Wouldn't it be cool if someone had a seti-like project, but instead of sifting through E.T. data, it compiled software in the background...
the only downside would be the amount of traffic moving around..uploading and downloading files...
as well as potential issues with naughty code coming in from it..

Still, it would be neat to share such cpu time for something more immediately useful, instead of searching for smurfs and finding large primes..

rasat · 2005-01-27 12:12:15

Tigger wrote:

You know me - I always just try and help..

Welcome to Arch!

For your information if you have not found them already, about pacman GUIs and other user contributions, and where few Arch users are developing, take a look at these links:
http://wiki2.archlinux.org/index.php/Us … utionsPage
http://user-contributions.org/forums/userproject/

rasat · 2005-01-27 12:45:05

I downloaded your package. Its not a Arch package... no PKGINFO and FILELIST. No problem, I installed the files manually. Pacmenu is nice.

We have something in common..... both of us likes dialog box CLI in Bash.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=2187

zeppelin · 2005-01-27 14:47:39

nice! but package names should be shorted alphabetically if you ask me. Or else it very hard to find the package you want to install

Tigger · 2005-01-27 16:21:28

zeppelin - The package list just comes out how pacman provides it which is alphabetically by repository.

If you want it fully sorted, then I'll make a revision - it is very simple.

rasat - yes I like dialog and bash. Works great as a simple frontend to most things.

I will upload a new version tonight with proper sorting on the install submenu.

Tigger · 2005-01-27 16:28:23

rasat wrote:

Welcome to Arch!
For your information if you have not found them already, about pacman GUIs and other user contributions, and where few Arch users are developing, take a look at these links:
http://wiki2.archlinux.org/index.php/Us … utionsPage
http://user-contributions.org/forums/userproject/

Thanks for the welcome.

Those look pretty good. pacmenu is not meant to be a "gui" tool but rather a menu based cli frontend to pacman(which is pretty awesome in my books as a package manager)

I basically created it so I could scroll back and forth through the packages and install what I wanted without having to keep grepping. Just meant to save a few keystrokes.

Tigger · 2005-01-27 16:53:34

rasat wrote:

I downloaded your package. Its not a Arch package... no PKGINFO and FILELIST. No problem, I installed the files manually. Pacmenu is nice.

I just started using Arch so pacman and the whole package system is new to me - I am very familiar with Slack packages though.

I will read through the manpage for makepkg and see if I can make an arch package for it so it can be installed using pacman.

rasat · 2005-01-27 17:45:31

Tigger wrote:

I basically created it so I could scroll back and forth through the packages and install what I wanted without having to keep grepping. Just meant to save a few keystrokes.

That's the only thing I feel is missing in pacman, list of available (uninstalled) packages. The way how pacMenu does is nice, except the list becomes long.

Would be easier to scroll through the list, if the packages could be categorized as per package category at Arch's home page.
http://www.archlinux.org/packages.php
Instead of listing all, user could specify a category e.g. network or utility. Unfortunately pacman doesn't use these categories. What could though help is to include the description for each packages and a search key.

The pkgseeper uses the categories. I made a package-category-description template by copying the interface of the home page. But that's not the way because it requires a constant manual update to upload by a package maintainer. Best way would be to access directly the home page's database. But that may cause a security issue.

xerxes2 · 2005-01-27 18:02:27

hello Tigger and welcome to arch from me also,

here is a PKGBUILD for pacmenu

[root@UFU pacmenu]# cat PKGBUILD
pkgname=pacmenu
pkgver=0.2
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="Terminal menu for Pacman."
url=""
depends=()
source=(http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/vectorlinux/veclinux-soho-4.0/packages/pacmenu-1.0.pkg.tar.gz)
md5sums=()

build() {
  
  mkdir -p $startdir/pkg/usr/bin
  install -m 755 usr/bin/pacmenu $startdir/pkg/usr/bin
  mkdir -p $startdir/pkg/etc
  install -m 644 etc/pacmenu.conf $startdir/pkg/etc
  }

run € abs , as root, and create /var/abs/local/pacmenu , save the code as file name PKGBUILD in that dir and run € makepkg ,
it should make a package of it, if you're lucky,

Tigger · 2005-01-27 18:16:08

In order to reduce the size of the list, it is recommended to install everything - lol.

I thought of that too but there was no easy way of doing it. It isn't a "newbie" tool as far as knowing what the packages are. My assumption is that if you are running Arch, you know what the packages are about.

There is a lot that can be done but much of it relies on the underlying functionality of pacman. As it stands, pacman is a very nice tool. We have been moving to "slapt-get" for Vector Linux but we want to kind of stay away from the Linuxpackages repo as it has many inconsistencies in it - lots of broken apps,etc. We don't have enough devs to properly create a nice slapt-get app tree quickly enough.

Pacman is too "different" from some of the other tools so I see why newbies find it a bit confusing at first.

We could use something like pacman but only with a gui app for it. The VL community is mostly newbies or recent converts. I make a lot of little bash/Xdialog scripts to automate stuff for them.

Easy package install is a definite plus. The sheer size of the debian repository is impressive to say the least. The repo here for arch is quite substantial as well. VL is Slack-based and thus most slack packages will work on it.

cactus · 2005-01-27 18:19:55

well, it wouldn't be too hard to parse the pacman.conf file, yank out the repo names, and then have packan query those repo lists..

pacman -Sl reponame

then you could get a list of packages on the machine
pacman -Q
and compare the two. or something like that...

Tigger · 2005-01-27 18:40:54

xerxes2 wrote:

hello Tigger and welcome to arch from me also,
here is a PKGBUILD for pacmenu
[root@UFU pacmenu]# cat PKGBUILD
pkgname=pacmenu
pkgver=0.2
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="Terminal menu for Pacman."
url=""
depends=()
source=(http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/vectorlinux/veclinux-soho-4.0/packages/pacmenu-1.0.pkg.tar.gz)
md5sums=()

build() {
  
  mkdir -p $startdir/pkg/usr/bin
  install -m 755 usr/bin/pacmenu $startdir/pkg/usr/bin
  mkdir -p $startdir/pkg/etc
  install -m 644 etc/pacmenu.conf $startdir/pkg/etc
  }
run € abs , as root, and create /var/abs/local/pacmenu , save the code as file name PKGBUILD in that dir and run € makepkg ,
it should make a package of it, if you're lucky,

You just saved me a bunch of time

Thanks.

Tigger · 2005-01-27 18:52:04

cactus wrote:

well, it wouldn't be too hard to parse the pacman.conf file, yank out the repo names, and then have packan query those repo lists..
pacman -Sl reponame
then you could get a list of packages on the machine
pacman -Q
and compare the two. or something like that...

According to my limited knowlege of pacman, "pacman -Sl" will look at whatever is available in the repositories listed in the pacman.conf file from the last time it was resfreshed. This is what pacmenu uses. pacmenu then compares this to "pacman -Q" and strips out the packages that are installed.

Tigger · 2005-01-27 19:21:58

xerxes2 wrote:

pkgname=pacmenu
pkgver=1.0
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="Terminal menu for Pacman."
url=""
depends=()
source=(pacmenu pacmenu.conf)
md5sums=(i md5summed them and put it here)
build() {

mkdir -p $startdir/pkg/usr/bin
install -m 755 pacmenu $startdir/pkg/usr/bin
mkdir -p $startdir/pkg/etc
install -m 644 pacmenu.conf $startdir/pkg/etc
}

I modified it a bit but it has been made into an arch package now. I fixed the alphabetical order issue from current to extra listing on the install menu. They will be in complete alphabetical order now regardless of whether from current or extra.

Thanks again. I will upload it tonight when I get home. I have no access to our ftp site from where I am at now.

Arch Linux

#1 2005-01-26 20:19:56

I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#2 2005-01-26 21:02:15

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#3 2005-01-26 21:57:51

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#4 2005-01-26 22:00:47

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#5 2005-01-26 22:19:46

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#6 2005-01-26 23:33:09

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#7 2005-01-27 01:04:22

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#8 2005-01-27 07:43:51

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#9 2005-01-27 08:03:30

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#10 2005-01-27 08:41:37

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#11 2005-01-27 09:06:27

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#12 2005-01-27 09:57:28

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#13 2005-01-27 12:12:15

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#14 2005-01-27 12:45:05

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#15 2005-01-27 14:47:39

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#16 2005-01-27 16:21:28

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#17 2005-01-27 16:28:23

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#18 2005-01-27 16:53:34

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#19 2005-01-27 17:45:31

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#20 2005-01-27 18:02:27

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#21 2005-01-27 18:16:08

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#22 2005-01-27 18:19:55

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#23 2005-01-27 18:40:54

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#24 2005-01-27 18:52:04

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

#25 2005-01-27 19:21:58

Re: I created "Pacmenu" if anyone is interested

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