On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Colin Walters wrote: > > The output format of dpkg -l is terrible. Many package names exceed > the measly 16 characters allotted. Many, many times when trying to
Yes. > what I really want to do is dpkg -l '*netscape*' | xargs dpkg --purge. I recommend dpkg --get-selections '*netscape*' instead. But the whole bunch of 'informative' dpkg options is rather weird: * dpkg --list doesn't list all available packages, but just the ones that have been 'touched' by a selection. dpkg -- list '*' lists all available and some unavailble (old cruft) packages. (not documented) * same with dpkg --get selections. (not documented) * dpkg -l '*netscape*' lists (on my system, continuously upgraded since Debian 1.3) MORE packages than dpkg --get-selections '*netscape*' but the difference is again never-installed cruft. (not documented) * there is no obvious reason (except that the dpkg developers may have more important things to fight with) why dpkg --status and dpkg --print-avail shouldn't accept wildcards, too, but they don't. (documented) Bj"orn Brill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Frankfurt am Main, Germany
