feature request: slightly better 'package not available' message

[Arno Hautala]

On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 08:28, Roger Pack <rogerdpack2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Perhaps it could be made to output "possible matches" as rubygems
> currently does, or, like ubuntu "packages known to contain that
> binary" or what not.

port already has the "search" command for searching within package
names, descriptions, etc. It would definitely be beneficial to
automatically offer a basic list of matches in cases like this.
Further fuzziness (suggesting p5-app-ack if the user enters p5-ap-ack,
p5-ack, ack, or even akk) would be even better, but would require the
code to support it, though I wouldn't be surprised if libraries for
this sort of thing already exist.

Actually matching against packages that contain a command has been
suggested I think. The easiest way to do this would be once binary
packages are available. The package contents could be added to a
searchable database.

Good ideas. You might try searching trac.macports.org to see if
they've already been submitted. Submit them yourself if they aren't
already there.

At the least, it'd be a good idea for the error message to suggest
using "port search", even if the search isn't automatically run.

-- 
arno  s  hautala    /-|   arno at alum.wpi.edu

pgp b2c9d448