The FAQ page [FAQ15] suggests to use "pkg_info -Q" to search the
collection of pre-compiled packages. When I search for "tcl",
I get a few "nextcloud" packages only, but no Tcl:
$ pkg_info -v -Q tcl
PKG_PATH=<undefined>
nextcloud-27.1.11p0
nextcloud-28.0.11
nextcloud-28.0.12
nextcloud-29.0.8
nextcloud-29.0.9
At first I thought it was a bug. Then I read in pkg_info(1) that
the flag -Q makes it "show the names of all packages in the *first*
repository of the package search path" and that passing the flag
-a makes it search *all* repositories instead.
Indeed, now I can find Tcl:
$ pkg_info -a -Q tcl | grep ^tcl | head -n 3
tcl-8.5.19p6
tcl-8.6.13
tcl-snmptools-1.0p2
It's problem #1. I find the FAQ page instructions misleading.
Assuming pkg_info works as intended, shall the page be updated
to include the -a flag, for example so?--
--- faq/faq15.html
+++ faq/faq15.html
@@ -147 +147 @@ architectures.
-To search for any given package name, use the <code>-Q</code> flag of
+To search for any given package name, use the <code>-aQ</code> flags of
@@ -151 +151 @@ To search for any given package name, use the <code>-Q
-$ <b>pkg_info -Q unzip</b>
+$ <b>pkg_info -aQ unzip</b>
* * *
I couldn't find what is a repository (in the context of the pkg_info(1)
man page), nor how they might be set up. I assume it's related to
installurl(5) and PKG_PATH env. var.
I haven't set or changed PKG_PATH. On the mirror that my system uses,
at <https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.6/> there are two directories:
packages and packages-stable. I assume they are the "repositories" and
they both form a default search path, where -stable comes first. The
-stable contains the aforementioned nextcloud packages, hence matching
the "tcl" search substring.
If so, that description of -Q (show names in the first repository)
doesn't match the behaviour of "pkg_info -Q", given the first repository
contains no match for the search substring. Take this example:
$ pkg_info -Q unzip
lunzip-1.14p0
unzip-6.0p17
unzip-6.0p17-iconv
$ pkg_info -aQ unzip
lunzip-1.14p0
unzip-6.0p17
unzip-6.0p17-iconv
There are no packages in -stable that match substring "unzip",
so (I assume) the search carries on to the second repository
in the search path, finds and returns something, then stops.
It's problem #2. I don't know whether it's an intended behaviour
to return names from the first *matched* repository. However,
the actual behaviour and the man page subtly disagree here.
I think it should be corrected in one place or another.
* * *
Overall it was a confusing user experience for me. I wanted to
make a simple substring search of all available packages.
"pkg_info -Q" is there to do it. However, inconsistency
between the FAQ page, man page, and the actual pkg_info behaviour
misled and confused me for a while. I also wonder why -aQ is
a special case rather than be included in -Q by default.
(Running on OpenBSD 7.6-stable/amd64.)
[FAQ15]: https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html#PkgFind
