[packagekit] Unsupported package groups/filters

[Richard Hughes]

On 09/09/2007, Andreas <tradiaz at yahoo.de> wrote:
> I'm trying to write a backend for libalpm, a library which Archlinux'
> and Frugalware's pacman is based upon.

Quality.If you send me your preferred username I'll give you commit
access to the development server.

> Archlinux (like many other distros) puts all headers and other
> development stuff in the same packages as the actual binaries. So no
> -devel packages there - (~)development filter.

Gotcha.

> It also has package groups different to those used by PackageKit.

What sort of groups does it have for example? Is it a subset of the
group enums or whole new set? Could you list what groups enums would
be good for you?

> Filtering packages by th GUI criteria looks like a problem to me on
> almost every distro (the box backend for example simply ignores it).

Sure. I do think this is quite important, although it will prove
difficult to do.

> I think it'd be better to let the backend specify which groups/filters
> it provides. The backends could pick their groups out of a number of
> enums. I know you want to be compatible with .desktop file groups, but
> lots of distros just don't support this, including some of the most
> popular.

Sure, I'm open for that. We have to stick to enumerated types, else we
have to provide support for localisation and icons and that sort of
stuff, which I really don't want to do.

> Appreciating your work a lot I think this project is a step ahead and I
> hope you can find a way to make it
> suitable for every popular package manager out there.

Sure, thanks for your feedback; without guys like you suggesting
changes, PackageKit will not be suitable for all the backends and thus
be a complete failure :-)

I've deliberately not set the API in stone, and won't for quite a
while. So, putting my money where my mouth is:

s=GetSupportedFilters()
where s="development;installed" or "installed" or "development;installed;gui"

s=GetGroupList()
where s="accessories;system;other"

We can easily hook these into the backend at dlopen time, much like
how we automatically get the supported list (a fake job).

How do these sound?

Richard.