Software Updates: show apt metadata, including clickable links to upstream, apt-mark info

[mcint]

Page:

Feature

In Software Updates, browsing & searching packages, and able to view size, dependencies metadata, urls for project and package, etc.

Process

I may try to implement this, but want feedback: suggestions, concerns, and critique.

I want to support workflows of finding and installing packages, by making supporting information easily available, at least what's already easily available in apt & dpkg stores. Perhaps something like aptitude could also be a high-end target in terms of feature set and density of interface.

I would start with, and prioritize a browsing-oriented workflow, supporting search, and viewing package metadata, rendered nicely.

It seems like this should live as a separable module, able to run standalone.

[jelly]

The current software page uses PackageKit to fetch the information about software updates. It also supports installing and searching for packages so would be preferred over calling apt or dpkg as both are Debian/Ubuntu specific while PackageKit is distro-agnostic. (GNOME Software / KDE's Discover also use PackageKit).

[mcint]

I see some frontends include a description alongside the name. I'm really interested in this level, a touch more information than package name slugs, and especially interested in links to the upstream project, via the package management kit's metadata. Is that possible?

I can look into how pk-update-viewer fetches descriptions.

(from https://web.archive.org/web/20121221153300/http://www.hughsie.com/public/introduction-to-packagekit.pdf)

I don't find an overview of the data model or API to suit my curiosity on PackageKit's FreeDesktop homepage.

[jelly]

Sure PackageKit should be able to provide that:

[root@fedora-39-127-0-0-2-2201 ~]# pkcon  search cockpit
Searching by details          [=========================]
Querying                      [=========================]
Loading cache                 [=========================]
Finished                      [=========================]
Available       anaconda-webui-39.32.6-2.fc39.x86_64 (fedora)                   Cockpit based user interface for the Anaconda installer
Installed       cockpit-315.dev56+gc43b3289d.dirty-1.fc39.x86_64 (installed)    Web Console for Linux servers

We use the DBus API in Cockpit and the documentation is available but a bit sparse in how to use it.

Or see our code pkg/packagekit/updates.jsx and try to console log in interesting parts. But afaik we don't have search.