From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice Subject: Re: Improve package search Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 23:01:12 +0100 Message-ID: <87mulx9kuv.fsf@nckx> References: <20190314204941.GA21065@jasmine.lan> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:58296) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1h4YPh-0007I1-Bi for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Mar 2019 18:01:22 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1h4YPf-0003od-W9 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Mar 2019 18:01:21 -0400 Received: from tobias.gr ([2001:470:7405::1]:49724) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1h4YPf-0003kH-4s for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Mar 2019 18:01:19 -0400 In-reply-to: <20190314204941.GA21065@jasmine.lan> List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Leo Famulari Cc: Guix-devel Leo, mikadoZero, This has been suggested many times and is a good idea. Now all we=20 need is someone to do the work, but that's the easy part, right? Leo Famulari wrote: > On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 02:31:36PM -0400, mikadoZero wrote: >> # Proposed idea >>=20 >> * Add a "programs" field to package definitions that list the=20 >> programs >> that are included in a package.=20 >> * Include this field in search results. >> * Have this field factor into the search result relevance=20 >> scores. We should also expose it directly like other package managers do.=20 =E2=80=98guix which=E2=80=99 would be very handy, and allows=20 =E2=80=98command-not-found=E2=80=99-style suggestions for those who like th= at kind=20 of thing. >> # Feedback >>=20 >> This is an initial idea that would benefit from the input of=20 >> others. > > For me, it would be better to have this "program listing" built > automatically, rather than relying on packagers to get it right=20 > and keep > it up to date. It would be a great feature once it is in place. Absolutely. Adding this to the package record manually is a=20 maintenance nightmare. It's data that can be trivially=20 auto-generated (ls =E2=80=A6/{,s}bin, basically), and storing it in-line=20 takes up too much screen and mind space for my taste. People have suggested using the build farm for this, but that adds=20 disproportionate complexity and decouples/delays updates from the=20 commits that caused them. It's just not the right place. A separate simple (text) database (included in the git repository,=20 and updated in the same commit) would be faster to search and stay=20 out of our way. On the other hand, we'd be able to map commands only to package=20 names, not to specific objects. Just thinking out loud, T G-R