Any way to query the Arch package list to get %-installed by package?
All, Devs, I was curious about the frequency that packages in extra and core are installed by Arch users. Is that metadata captured anywhere and is there any way a user can query it? What sparked this curiosity is that I follow the package feeds closely checking for version changes I may have to deal with on a production box. In doing so I learn about many packages I've never heard of before. That posed the question of how frequently all packages are installed by Arch users. Package use, popularity, whatever you want to call it can provide a reasonable metric when comparing between two packages that provide the same feature in determining which to investigate first or install. It would also give a metric of the impact of a developer retiring or orphaning packages. Does any install frequency data such as that exist for packages in extra and core? Or could it be garnered by whatever data is captured from the mirror system? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On Thursday, 5 September 2024 at 15:36 (-0500), David C. Rankin wrote:
I was curious about the frequency that packages in extra and core are installed by Arch users. Is that metadata captured anywhere and is there any way a user can query it?
Check out pkgstats: https://pkgstats.archlinux.de/ Jaron
On 9/5/24 3:42 PM, Jaron Kent-Dobias wrote:
On Thursday, 5 September 2024 at 15:36 (-0500), David C. Rankin wrote:
I was curious about the frequency that packages in extra and core are installed by Arch users. Is that metadata captured anywhere and is there any way a user can query it?
Check out pkgstats: https://pkgstats.archlinux.de/
Jaron
Now that's pretty cool and pretty close. Thank you for the link, I'll definitely check it out. It looks like it comes from the question from a different angle (e.g. for package x, y ... get frequency), but that is pretty close. I'll have to read to see what all is available. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On Thu, 5 Sep 2024 22:42:05 +0200 Jaron Kent-Dobias <jaron@kent-dobias.com> wrote:
On Thursday, 5 September 2024 at 15:36 (-0500), David C. Rankin wrote:
I was curious about the frequency that packages in extra and core are installed by Arch users. Is that metadata captured anywhere and is there any way a user can query it?
Check out pkgstats: https://pkgstats.archlinux.de/
I just get 'JavaScript is required for "pkgstats.archlinux.de".' in FF 115.15.0esr (64-bit) even with all my blockers turned off (noscript & uBO). The browser console says: patchWindow disabled. patchWindow.js:103:13 Content-Security-Policy: The page's settings blocked the loading of a resource at data: ("default-src"). pkgstats.archlinux.de Content-Security-Policy: The page's settings blocked the loading of a resource at data: ("media-src"). pkgstats.archlinux.de Content-Security-Policy: The page's settings blocked the loading of a resource at https://pkgstats.archlinux.de/js/220.5027cd1dde573bf106e7.js ("script-src-elem"). pkgstats.archlinux.de Content-Security-Policy: The page's settings blocked the loading of a resource at https://pkgstats.archlinux.de/js/app.efa3b22b8bed4ceb23f1.js ("script-src-elem"). pkgstats.archlinux.de Loading failed for the <script> with source “https://pkgstats.archlinux.de/js/220.5027cd1dde573bf106e7.js”. pkgstats.archlinux.de:1:239 Loading failed for the <script> with source “https://pkgstats.archlinux.de/js/app.efa3b22b8bed4ceb23f1.js”. pkgstats.archlinux.de:1:308 I'm afraid I don't understand those errors or what if anything I should do to cure them.
On 9/5/24 10:36 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:
All, Devs,
I was curious about the frequency that packages in extra and core are installed by Arch users. Is that metadata captured anywhere and is there any way a user can query it?
What sparked this curiosity is that I follow the package feeds closely checking for version changes I may have to deal with on a production box. In doing so I learn about many packages I've never heard of before. That posed the question of how frequently all packages are installed by Arch users.
Package use, popularity, whatever you want to call it can provide a reasonable metric when comparing between two packages that provide the same feature in determining which to investigate first or install. It would also give a metric of the impact of a developer retiring or orphaning packages.
Does any install frequency data such as that exist for packages in extra and core? Or could it be garnered by whatever data is captured from the mirror system?
Hi, As far as I'm aware from a mirrors standpoint there is no way of knowing the frequency of installment as all packages are mirrored from T0 and then spread out to other mirrors that are out of our observation. Since T0 is just accessed by T1s, that is not a useful metric. Even if you'd get logs from other mirrors, those are just downloaded packages which you have no idea if they are installed or just downloaded for whatever reason. Regards, Arun
On 9/5/24 3:49 PM, pitastrudl wrote:
As far as I'm aware from a mirrors standpoint there is no way of knowing the frequency of installment as all packages are mirrored from T0 and then spread out to other mirrors that are out of our observation. Since T0 is just accessed by T1s, that is not a useful metric. Even if you'd get logs from other mirrors, those are just downloaded packages which you have no idea if they are installed or just downloaded for whatever reason.
Thank you for your reply! I suspected that may be the case but had no way to confirm. Maybe with future systems something like that may be available. Even the T1 mirror data would give a rough idea. It's probably reasonable to assume that an overwhelming majority of downloads are installs - there may be a point or two that are just downloaded for other reasons, but there isn't much else you can do with a binary package -- other than install it (for most packages). For now it is enough to know that the data isn't readily available. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On Thu, Sep 05, 2024 at 03:36:12PM -0500, David C. Rankin wrote:
All, Devs,
I was curious about the frequency that packages in extra and core are installed by Arch users. Is that metadata captured anywhere and is there any way a user can query it?
pkgstats [1] [2] ? [1] https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/pkgstats/ [2] https://pkgstats.archlinux.de Merell -- "Flight Reservation systems decide whether or not you exist. If your information isn't in their database, then you simply don't get to go anywhere." -- Arthur Miller
participants (5)
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Dave Howorth
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David C. Rankin
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Jaron Kent-Dobias
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Merell L. Matlock, Jr.
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pitastrudl