list of package names, versions[, descriptions]

[Greg Minshall]

hi.  i'd like to keep a copy of the list of AUR packages, version
numbers, and descriptions on my machine.  the list can be somewhat out
of date (say, as of the last time i did "pacman -Syu", which, for me, is
every week or two).

my question is how to do it with minimal overhead?  i know packages.gz.
that will give me the list of packages.  however, without the version
numbers, i won't be able to tell whether my cached information for a
given package is up to date or not.

would it be possible to (put on the list to) provide at some point a
"packages-versions.gz"?  or, even, "packages-versions-descriptions.gz"?
(though the former is probably of more general use.)

below is my motivation for wanting this.  apologies if i've missed some
already existing way of doing this.

cheers, Greg
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motivation:

for the last several years i've been using a script i "wrote" (inspired
by something similar from fink) that, from local information, lists
available packages, install status, version numbers, and descriptions
[1].  (i'm often in a disconnected, or badly connected, world, so i try
to avoid relying on the web.)

having converted recently to arch, i pulled my script up to pacman [2],
and would like to do an aur version, as well.

for "packages-versions.gz", i'd download that, then use the package
names and versions to make queries to bring a local database up to date
with what AUR has.  i'd damp this process to once a week or so.

(i've spent some time in the last week, offline, playing with figuring
out how efficiently -- in terms of both number of requests and amount of
[duplicated] data transmitted -- i can download all the information via
repeated RPC searches on frequently-appearing search terms -- using
packages.gz as a way of knowing all the entries.  but, as fun as that
is, it's a hack.)

[1] https://github.com/greg-minshall/apt-list
[2] https://gitlab.com/minshall/pac-list