[Application] Faster APT Command Line Usage :D!

[kerry_s]

Please forgive my ignorance but why would a front-end to APT be needed? I mean, isn't that what we have Synaptic for?

for speed, yes, there is synaptic, but synaptic is well slow.
example:
find synaptic in your menu> click> type password> wait it's loading> highlight the right side so it will find as you type> mark for install> click apply> yada yada..

open terminal> type> sudo apt-get install name
or
open terminal> type> install name (if you have alias's)
or
if there was a program like buddy:
sudo buddy
press 1 > type> name

speed damit! we want speed!

[Ebuntor]

for speed, yes, there is synaptic, but synaptic is well slow.
example:
find synaptic in your menu> click> type password> wait it's loading> highlight the right side so it will find as you type> mark for install> click apply> yada yada..

open terminal> type> sudo apt-get install name
or
open terminal> type> install name (if you have alias's)
or
if there was a program like buddy:
sudo buddy
press 1 > type> name

speed damit! we want speed!

Lol, ok ok, I get it, more of speed, way more.

[qazwsx]

kpackage seems to be little faster to use than synaptic IMO. Keyboard shortcuts...

CLI is unbeatable in package management speed category.

How about little shell script frontend for apt then...

[Glaxed]

tentative feature list:
> list installed packages
> search installed packages & all packages
> get package description
> lock & unlock packages
> add repos and manage gpgs with short commands
> compress cached .deb files
> install .deb files (dpkg frontend)
> get source dependencies

> 'debug' sources.list file (great when experimenting with new repos that cause errors)
[by debug, i mean provide information about what causes the error, not just flash the error message apt does].

((> seed .deb files with upload/download choking - been suggested and shot down before, and requires a tracker and the ability to contact large swarms of people to switch downloads i.e unfeasable)

more suggestions?
This doesnt look too hard to code, seeing as all of it will be done using std::system. Or not, depending on if there is a better approach.

[toupeiro]

thats what alias's are for.

+1

Also, you do know you can tab-to-complete with apt-get right? you can also tab-tab to get a list of every possible hit in your repository list with what you have typed so far. I don't see how anything menu-driven can be faster than that which is available between synaptic and apt-get

[popuptarget]

But just out of devils advocate how does one go about CLIing it when one does not know the name of the application needed? For me I got a Verizon wireless card. As the instructions were so very useful for Linux users (lots of sarcasm here) I found Synaptic very useful (gnomeppp). Understanding that CLI=speed and everyone wants speed of course but now that I am in synaptic to find an app, why would I click to close that out to click to open a terminal to type in commands to get an app?

[Glaxed]

So how do you pass arguments to aliases guys?

e.g, if you have

alias sda='sudo mount -o rw /dev/sda3 /home/$USER/$FOLDER'

and you need an argument for the folder location?
can you just $ sda /Desktop
or something like that?

[kerry_s]

But just out of devils advocate how does one go about CLIing it when one does not know the name of the application needed? For me I got a Verizon wireless card. As the instructions were so very useful for Linux users (lots of sarcasm here) I found Synaptic very useful (gnomeppp). Understanding that CLI=speed and everyone wants speed of course but now that I am in synaptic to find an app, why would I click to close that out to click to open a terminal to type in commands to get an app?

these are my alias's

alias su='sudo -i'
alias update='sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get -u dist-upgrade'
alias install='sudo apt-get install'
alias remove='sudo apt-get remove --purge'
alias search='apt-cache search'
alias show='apt-cache show'
alias clean='sudo apt-get clean'
alias fix='sudo apt-get -f install'

so for me i use " search editor " and it will list editors. if i want a closer look at it " show nvi " anything you can do in synaptic can be done at command.

[popuptarget]

Well shoot fire. Now I am going to play with this being a noob and all and see how well I do. That and see how comfortable (friendliness and intuative) I am using this as opposed to synaptic. Thanks.

V/R Jason

[kerry_s]

So how do you pass arguments to aliases guys?

e.g, if you have

alias sda='sudo mount -o rw /dev/sda3 /home/$USER/$FOLDER'

and you need an argument for the folder location?
can you just $ sda /Desktop
or something like that?

this:
alias sda='sudo mount -o rw /dev/sda3 /home/$USER/$FOLDER'
would be more like:
alias sda='sudo mount -t auto /dev/sda3 /$HOME/Desktop'

personally, i would use pmount instead, and put an entry in fstab:

/dev/sda1 /media/usb auto user,noauto 0 0

i created a usb folder in /media, so i just:

pmount usb
pumount usb