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  • From: flux <flux AT sourcemage.org>
  • To: SourceMage Discuss mailing List <SM-Discuss AT Lists.IBiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [SM-Discuss] Anyone interested in a mlocate spell?
  • Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:25:03 -0400

Kevin Monceaux (Kevin AT RawFedDogs.net) wrote [08.10.23 14:11]:
> Would anyone be interested in a mlocate spell?
Sounds interesting to me. Thanks for bringing this to my attention so I
can have a peek at it! And thanks for already doing the work of making
the spell as well. :)

> In addition to the updatedb.conf file mlocate overwrites three files from
> findutils:
>
> /usr/bin/locate
>
> /usr/bin/updatedb
>
> /usr/share/man/man1/locate.1
>
> How should that be handled?
This seems complicated. It sounds like findutils will need to get an
option (depends?) for whether you want mlocate (have it installed), and
if so then don't install those files. I'm not really sure how this
should be handled, but my guess would be adding an optional_depends in
findutils and modifying its INSTALL.

> On a similar note, I'm also working on a man-db spell, if anyone would be
> interested in it. It would be something one would use in place of the man
> spell. It contains a man pager and the utilities to search/update the
> whatis database. It handles whatis database updates similar to the way
> mlocate handles locatedb updates. But, I have to admit, it's speed isn't
> what caught my eye. It's man pager has a tiny cosmetic detail that I
> really like for some reason. When viewing a man page with SMGL's man
> pager, the status like looks something like:
This sounds less useful to me (personally). First of all, I don't even
bother with having whatis on my system, since man can search anyway.
However, I'd imagine that the whatis database takes significantly less
to update than the locate db in the first place, so I don't think there
will be much of a speedup here. I suppose that also depends on how many
manpages you have installed and such forth though, so you'll have to let
me (us?) know of any comparisons of speed differences between man-db and
man.

As for the "cosmetic" difference, are you aware that you can actually
change the pager for man? Ours by default is less, but you can use any
pager you like, as that's configurable.

--
Justin "flux_control" Boffemmyer
Cauldron wizard and general mage
Source Mage GNU/Linux
http://www.sourcemage.org

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