[pacman-dev] Mark outdated packages automatically (aka Livecheck)

[Anatol Pomozov]

Hi,

I believe in automatization. Any routine work that can be done
automatically should be done this way.

One such thing that can be improved in Arch project is discovering
out-of-date packages. Currently it is done by users who go to
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/ find the package and then click
"Flag Package Out-of-Date" link. Why to bother users? Why not to let
some bot to visit websites and check for new versions?

There are examples of package managers that have such functionality -
macports http://guide.macports.org/chunked/reference.livecheck.html
Their Portfiles can have information about how to find released files
(using regexp). Then periodically (e.g. daily) a bot visits webpages,
parses html and checks if new files are present.

Is it possible to have such functionality in pacman? It would save
users time and make package update time lower.