Re: List packages Status column terminology

[trentbuck@gmail.com (Trent W. Buck)]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> "available" is not a great choice, tho.  The suggested "not installed"
> might be a bit better, but it's longer and I'd rather try and shorten
> this column.
>
> Any other idea?

For comparison, aptitude uses these terms:

  Upgradable Packages (71)
    A newer version of these packages is available.

  New Packages (82)
    These packages have been added to Debian since the last time you
    cleared the list of "new" packages (choose "Forget new packages"
    from the Actions menu to empty this list).

  Installed Packages (746)
    These packages are currently installed on your computer.

  Not Installed Packages (41034)
    These packages are not installed on your computer.

  Obsolete and Locally Created Packages (6)
    These packages are currently installed on your computer, but they
    are not available from any apt source.  They may be obsolete and
    removed from the archive, or you may have built a private version of
    them yourself.

  Virtual Packages (5748)
    These packages do not exist; they are names other packages use to
    require or provide some functionality.

They appear horizontally as grouping elements in a tree view,
so they use up one line each instead of umpteen columns.

Each package also has one to four single-letter codes in a generic
"status" column, "i" for installed, "A" for automatically installed by
something else, "p" for not installed, "v" for virtual, etc.  They
mostly correspond to the dpkg codes,

    Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
    | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
    |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
    ||/   Name    Vers  Description
    xyz   hello   1.0   The classic greeting, and a good example