[SOLVED] pacman and yay search - returned result is overwhelming.. most of them don't even have the string that i tried to search.

andrewysk · 12-29-2021, 03:17 PM

Did a yay package search for Tor browser, the result returned is overwhelmingly too many.. but many of the package does not even have tor in it, why is it like this ?
Is there way to do a package search when the result is too many ? i have faced several time, not knowing how to locate a package, because simply too many returned result, and most of them is not what i want to look for.

Code:

 $ yay -Ssq tor
...
nano
mdadm
libsecret
libldap
libedit
bison
b43-fwcutter
 -> error during AUR search: status 200: Too many package results.
 -> Showing repo packages only

did the same search using pacman.. and the result is also a lot..

Code:

$ pacman -Ssq tor
lib32-libappindicator-gtk2
lib32-libappindicator-gtk3
lib32-libindicator-gtk2
lib32-libindicator-gtk3
lib32-libldap
lib32-libwrap
lib32-lm_sensors
lib32-pipewire-v4l2
lib32-procps-ng
lib32-sni-qt
zsnes

teckk · 12-29-2021, 04:51 PM

Make a little effort.

Code:

pacman -Si tor

https://archlinux.org/packages/?q=tor

https://archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/tor/

https://github.com/archlinux/svntogi...ages/tor/trunk

https://www.torproject.org/

https://github.com/archlinux/svntogi...trunk/PKGBUILD

Edit:
Also

Code:

pacman -Si torbrowser-launcher

hish2021 · 12-30-2021, 03:17 AM

If I understand the question correctly, one may use regex:

Code:

pacman -Ss '^tor'

gives me just five results:

Code:

~ $ pacman -Ss '^tor'
community/python-threadloop 1.0.2-6
    Tornado IOLoop Backed Concurrent Futures
community/tor 0.4.6.9-1
    Anonymizing overlay network.
community/torbrowser-launcher 0.3.5-4
    Securely and easily download, verify, install, and launch Tor Browser in Linux
community/torrential 1.1.0-5
    Simple BitTorrent client for Pantheon
community/torsocks 2.3.0-2
    Wrapper to safely torify applications
  ~ $

I don't know how to search only names and not descriptions.

shruggy · 12-30-2021, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hish2021

I don't know how to search only names and not descriptions.

Code:

pacman -Ss '^tor-'

hish2021 · 12-30-2021, 03:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

Code:

pacman -Ss '^tor-'

Quote:

Sometimes, -s's builtin ERE (Extended Regular Expressions) can cause a lot of unwanted results, so it has to be limited to match the package name only; not the description nor any other field:

From: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/pacman

But

Code:

pacman -Ss '^tor-'

comes back empty!

shruggy · 12-30-2021, 03:48 AM

TBH, I just looked it up in the wiki page you quoted. Then

Code:

pacman -Ss '^tor$'

I never used Arch so cannot test it, but it works for pacman in MSYS2 on Windows.

hish2021 · 12-30-2021, 04:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

TBH, I just looked it up in the wiki page you quoted. Then

Code:

pacman -Ss '^tor$'

I never used Arch so cannot test it, but it works for pacman in MSYS2 on Windows.

That works but the wiki page doesn't have it perhaps because names like "torbrowser-launcher" and "torsocks" would be excluded.

Anyway, the Arch wiki can't be wrong

so I'll keep digging.

andrewysk · 12-30-2021, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

Make a little effort.

Code:

pacman -Si torbrowser-launcher

Never cross my mind that some packages name needed to search from internet for it before punch into package manager search.
I Literately thought that i can find any package just by typing name into yay, and grep it to my desired package.

Isn't that a bit...detouring to search for the package name from internet and then copy and paste it to package manager search ? ***just my thought**
Since i have to search the "unexpected package name" from internet, might well i just grab it from the author website ?

Ya, so i know now that i can try out some of these... "globbing" keys... with only this yield less than 5 result, which is good enough.. However, without searching from internet, sometime might still need to do guess in order for the package manager to return usable result.
$ pacman -Ss '^tor'

Thanks.. learnt how to user package manager to locate package that come with "no so direct name".

MeCrumbly429 · 01-03-2022, 07:33 PM

In a pinch, you could also pipe the output of a search into grep with the following command:
Pacman -Ss <QUERY> | grep <QUERY>

Grep is your friend :)

andrewysk · 01-04-2022, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeCrumbly429

In a pinch, you could also pipe the output of a search into grep with the following command:
Pacman -Ss <QUERY> | grep <QUERY>

Grep is your friend

Ya, i did that too, but it does not work because the end result is exactly the same. and the result of that search was hundreds..
it is the regex that able to narrows it down as what @hish2021 suggested.
If in case not sure what the the exact package name, then need to do search on http arch package search.

I have got it.

Thx

Code:

$ pacman -Ssq tor | grep ^tor
tor
torbrowser-launcher        <---- 
torrential
torsocks

Code:

$ pacman -Ssq ^tor
python-threadloop
tor
torbrowser-launcher    <---
torrential
torsocks

teckk · 01-04-2022, 08:33 AM

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks

MeCrumbly429 · 01-05-2022, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewysk

Ya, i did that too, but it does not work because the end result is exactly the same. and the result of that search was hundreds..
it is the regex that able to narrows it down as what @hish2021 suggested.
If in case not sure what the the exact package name, then need to do search on http arch package search.

I have got it.

Thx

Code:

$ pacman -Ssq tor | grep ^tor
tor
torbrowser-launcher        <---- 
torrential
torsocks

Code:

$ pacman -Ssq ^tor
python-threadloop
tor
torbrowser-launcher    <---
torrential
torsocks

Sorry, forgot to elaborate on that. Grep would only be a viable solution if you want a nested query, per se (for instance, pacman -Ss tor | grep browser).
However, this is pretty clunky, and is, in hindsight, a novelty solution.
I’m very sorry to have messed up there, I’m still kind of a klutz in the Linux world

andrewysk · 01-05-2022, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeCrumbly429

Sorry, forgot to elaborate on that. Grep would only be a viable solution if you want a nested query, per se (for instance, pacman -Ss tor | grep browser).
However, this is pretty clunky, and is, in hindsight, a novelty solution.
I’m very sorry to have messed up there, I’m still kind of a klutz in the Linux world

I believe it is no harm for anyone with good intention of trying to help out, So, ya..it is ok. Thx

Btw, The main issue with me in this thread was, i don't even know tor browser package name.. hence i was thinking tor package should be "tor".. if it have known that tor browser will be call tor-browser, i would have searched for "tor.*browser".
The 2nd reason why i failed at it because i have forgotten to use regex in the search (i have never use regex in pacman before.. this is first time.. so ya. this issue will not occur for me anymore in the future..

Consider it lesson learnt and solved. Thx