Using wajig for installing packages in debian

rng · 12-02-2012, 07:45 PM

I have recently installed debian and found 'Wajig' to be a great package manager. It obviates the need for using different commands like apt-get, apt-cache, dpkg, deselect, aptitude etc. For quick searching and installation it is better than synaptic. It has numerous options covering virtually every aspect of package management. In many ways one is reminded of the famous package manager 'pacman' of Archlinux. I only wish there were a few more features there.

The first is colored output (as is there with 'yaourt', another good package manager of Archlinux). IMHO commandline programs with colored output are a separate class as compared to those without colored output and they are better than gui for many tasks.

Other feature (which is there in 'yaourt') is that one should only need to give a command: 'wajig <pkgname>' and the output (colored) should show the search result WITH status (whether installed or not) AND (brief) information AS WELL AS an option to install package(s) found. Hence minimal command line input combines 4 very commonly used options: search, status, info and install.

I only want to know why this program is not more frequently recommended (as compared to dpkg or apt-get)?

towheedm · 12-02-2012, 10:01 PM

Wajig is a high level front-end to the other Debian package management tools, similar to Aptitute. From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wajig:

Quote:

Wajig is a simplified wrapper to Debian's package management tools including dpkg and APT. Wajig provides the functionality of apt-get, dpkg, dpkg-deb, apt-cache and other tools. These tools launch as a subprocess.

And from http://www.togaware.com/linux/surviv...Overview.html:

Quote:

Wajig expects a command and will call upon other Debian tools to perform the command.

And from:

Code:

apt-cache show wajig
...
Description: simplified Debian package management front end
 Wajig is a single commandline wrapper around apt, apt-cache, dpkg,
 /etc/init.d scripts and more, intended to be easy to use and providing
 extensive documentation for all of its functions.
 .
 With a suitable sudo(1) configuration, most (if not all) package installation
 as well as creation tasks can be done from a user shell. Wajig is also
 suitable for general system administration.

If it works for you, go for it. I'll stick with dpkg-*, apt-get, deselect and the like. It gives me more control, especially when building packages.

rng · 12-09-2012, 05:52 AM

Apparently, wajig and aptitude search for string in package names only, while apt-cache searches in description also. So apt-cache searches produce more results.

rng · 12-28-2012, 09:52 PM

The command 'wajig commands' produces a result as follows:

Code:

AUTOALTS
    Mark the Alternative to be auto-set (using set priorities)

AUTOCLEAN
    Remove no-longer-downloadable .deb files from the download cache

AUTODOWNLOAD
    Do an update followed by a download of all updated packages

AUTOREMOVE
    Remove unused dependency packages

And it is a long list. If I use command 'wajig commands | grep autoremove' I only get 'AUTOREMOVE' and not its description. If only the descriptions were on the same line as the name, one could search for required command. Is there any bash scripting method to circumvent this problem?

ruario · 12-28-2012, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rng

If I use command 'wajig commands | grep autoremove' I only get 'AUTOREMOVE' and not its description. If only the descriptions were on the same line as the name, one could search for required command. Is there any bash scripting method to circumvent this problem?

So do this instead

Code:

wajig commands | grep -iA1 autoremove

rng · 12-28-2012, 10:53 PM

That is exactly what I needed. Thanks very much.