Bug#519591: "apt-cache search MIME::Words" does not find libmime-tools-perl

[Nikolay Shaplov]

On Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:32:08 -0600
Gunnar Wolf <gwolf at gwolf.org> wrote:

> 
> 
> Nikolay Shaplov dijo [Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 08:46:09PM +0300]:
> > Package: libmime-tools-perl
> > Version: 5.427-2
> > Severity: minor
> > 
> > I ususally search for perl modules just by searching module name by
> > apt-cache search. I think many other users do the same thing. But
> > apt-cache search MIME::Words does not give libmime-tools-perl as a
> > result of the search.
> > 
> > May be it would be good to add "MIME::Words" string to the
> > discription of the package to make searching more simple?
> 
> apt-cache is not expected to perform a comprehensive search in the
> list of a package's files - If we were to do this, we would have to
> add all of the following:
> 
> MIME::Body
> MIME::Decoder
> MIME::Decoder::Base64
> MIME::Decoder::BinHex
> MIME::Decoder::Binary
> MIME::Decoder::Gzip64
> MIME::Decoder::NBit
> MIME::Decoder::QuotedPrint
> MIME::Decoder::UU
> MIME::Entity
> MIME::Field::ConTraEnc
> MIME::Field::ContDisp
> MIME::Field::ContType
> MIME::Field::ParamVal
> MIME::Head
> MIME::Parser
> MIME::Parser::Filer
> MIME::Parser::Reader
> MIME::Parser::Results
> MIME::Tools
> MIME::WordDecoder
> MIME::Words
> 
> We would have to list all the provided modules for each of our
> packages - which is clearly not doable (as several packages have
> hundreds of modules).
> 
> You should do this query with apt-file instead.
> 
> I am closing this bug, as it is not a bug - If you have arguments to
> keep pushing it, feel free to reopen.

Just imagine what user would do...

0. I need module Xxxx::Yyyy
1. apt-cache search Xxxx::Yyyy
2.1. If there is suitable result then apt-get intsall libxxx-yyy-perl
2.2. If there is no result there are two other ways:
2.2.1. Oh, there is no such module in debian! Stupid distr!
2.2.2. Think about that package would surely contain file Yyyy.pm, and
look for it

When I was young I sometimes did not find some packages with perl
modules in a way that is described here (see 2.2.1). The most difficult
thing is that for some modules apt-cache search Xxxx::Yyyy would give
right result. So then if user has idea that apt-cache search Xxxx::Yyyy
works well (he found that module ten minutes before), and apt-cache
search Xxxx::Zzzz shows no result, then there is no Xxxx::Zzzz module
in the repository... And he is mistaken because package
libxxxx-zzzz-perl has Xxxx::Zzzz module inside, but has no Xxxx::Zzzz
in the discription.

Yeah, you are right, there might be too many modules in one package,
and too many text should be added to package description.

May be not all modules should be mentioned in it. For example if
MIME::Parser::Reader is an internal part of MIME::Parser, or just
simply useless without MIME::Parser, then it should not be mentioned...
(I do not know the specific of these modules, may be I am wrong). If
there is for sure no project that would require MIME::Parser::Reader
only (without MIME::Parser) then MIME::Parser::Reader should be omitted.

But as for my case, project I work with asks just for MIME::Words, and
I were trying to install it for it.