[pacman-dev] Mark outdated packages automatically (aka Livecheck)

[Anatol Pomozov]

Hi

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Lukas Fleischer
<archlinux at cryptocrack.de> wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 11:12:05AM -0700, Anatol Pomozov wrote:
>> 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 out-of-date packages.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 "Flag Package Out-of-Date" link.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.
>
> Some developers and Trusted Users already use tools to check websites
> for updates. I agree that it might be better to do this in a central
> location but this is certainly not a pacman issue. Maybe we could add
> something to archweb (or just use a bot, as you already mentioned).

Sure, I can file a ticket against archweb.

But I believe PKGBUILD file should have a field that describes how to
find a new version for the package.