list of package names, versions[, descriptions]

[Mark Weiman]

On Tue, 2019-10-01 at 15:47 -0400, Greg Minshall wrote:
> Mark,
> 
> thanks.  if i understand correctly, if i do an RPC "search", i will get
> back pretty much the entire "database" entry for a given package.  and,
> if i do an "info", i will likely get that plus more information for the
> given package.
> 
> i think this means that, given a list of packages (from packages.gz), in
> order to find out what has changed i would need to issue a search for
> each of the packages.  i.e., i'd have to download the entire database,
> at a cost of some 55,000 RPC calls -- which i worry would be a heavier
> load on the server than downloading a file with the same information.
> 
> if there were something like a packages-vers.gz file, then one could
> keep track of which package entries one currently had and which were
> changed, and only do RPC calls for the changed ones.  (assuming, by the
> way, that when a packages database entry, it's *version* also changes.)
> 
> or, maybe i'm missing something?
> 
> cheers, Greg

You need information on *every* package? Not just the ones you use? Technically
in your script, you can query pacman for the foreign packages, then compare to
an RPC response (and info can take multiple packages, just check the wiki),
then take action on those specific packages. I don't see the need to have
information on every single PKGBUILD on the AUR.

I'm pretty sure this is how most AUR helpers work these days when checking for
updates.

Mark