Is it sufficiently machine readable so that one could extract the
information automatically?
There have been various efforts over many years to make the Directory
machine-readable, in its many implementations. I do not know where they
stand today.
Out of the ~303 packages in ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu,
For the record, fp:/gd/gnuorg/maintainers.bypkg (and /maintainers)
ultimately defines what is and isn't a GNU "package". There are
currently 382 GNU packages listed in that file (and nine special cases
and four lines of comments).
More accessibly, the gnupackages.txt in womb/gnumaint on savannah has
the same list, minus the special cases.
Of course, the contents of a "package" can vary tremendously, and not
all are installable software. That's just how it has historically
turned out.
Best,
Karl
