Search in packages contents

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jun 20, 2016, at 7:30 AM, Michele Venturi wrote:

> As I've discussed with raim on irc I would like to be able to search the packages' contents for a certain file. This could be done via the web or the cli once a buildbot has compiled the list maybe in the form of a sqllite database to store on the user's machine if it is not too big or otherwise to query over the net. Specifically I think it would be useful to know which port to install to get a given executable, so if I need the "factor" command I would find out straight away that it is included in the "coreutils" bundle, without having to look for a specific information in a generic way on the internet.
> It could also be useful to know beforehand what files will be added to your system by each port, as you can already do now after the installation. These are all features that most of the best package managers like "apt-get" or "rpm" already have, but that "mac-ports" and "homebrew" are still lacking, so having them would be a plus in the comparison between the Mac software choices of that particular kind.
> If I can do something else apart from this rough sketching of really basic ideas to get what I'm here suggesting done, please let me know and I'd try to let you help me help you.

Yes, that's on my list of things to get into the new MacPorts web site. Probably not right away, but after the more important major features are up and running.

Note that which files are installed can vary by variant, and our buildbot does not build all variants, only the default variant. I don't suspect this will be a large issue, but it is an issue it would be possible to run into.