Debtags workflows
context workflows
Debtags workflows could be part of a more general workflow Search for supported functionality in Devuan.
debtags / status as of 2024
Debtags is a project that aims to facilitate classification and discovery of packages in debian (and thus in a certain degree in devuan) but as of 12/2024 seems unmaintained althougth by its nature that could mean less classification by other package authors .Anyway personally i think it is a usefull endeavour especially to end users who want to gain knowledge of how a distro can match their needs and to the distro developers as a way to organize the offered functionality.
Debtags has been removed from debian testing and various project links are dead.
debian tracker / debtags @
less /usr/share/doc/debtags/README website : http://debtags.alioth.debian.org/ dead link mailing lists: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debtags-devel \\ non existant https://debtags.debian.org/ dead link. Subversion repository: http://svn.debian.org/viewcvs/debtags/ dead link
debtags / alternatives
A basic alternatives would be curated lists of packages organized by users focusing on their interests. That would be outside the Devuan repos. A curated list should state the Devuan release name and then a table of package names , each package name should be linked with tags.
One could say that a default Devuan installation IS a curated list of packages installed. Also in the installation we are given at one point a choice of desktop enviroment or not. That choice could be possibly be broaden.
A more elaborate effort, but probably more stable in the long run would be curated workflows establishing a relation among packages . That relation would establish a spatial-temporal relation of packages that a certain user uses. That could be seen as a personal-workflow-facet. The rationale here is that a user establishes workflows among various programs when using a computer. Examples: workflow-facet::comic-creation,website-creation,physics-modeling etc. A complex network of overlaps and interdepencies would flourish between the sub-flows of the faces-workflows.
debtags / description
Debtags is a set of categories to describe Debian packages. So we could say its a categorization scheme(system) . It's not hierachical in general but it has more general categories called facets and eacd facets has a set of tags.
A facet could be seen as a semantic grouping of tags. Propably meaning that packages in the same facet are used in common workflows.
debtags / workflows
debtags / workflows / list all supported facets and tags
subworkflow description: List the supported facets and tags of each facet.
preconditions:
- debtags deb package installed.
- concepts of facets and tags in the debtags system context. (short description: a facet is a group of tags that share a commom meaning)
$ debtags tagcat / Output the whole tag vocabulary.
/ Containts descriptions for each tag
$ debtags tagcat | grep Facet / to see all the available facets
Knowing all the facets we can list the tags of each facet either by using grep in the whole tag vocabulary or tab completion (tagshow).:
$ debtags tagshow FacetFOO::<press tab> / press tab to see all available facets and tags
/ in columns
eg: $ debtags tagshow implemented-in::<tab>
ada c-sharp fortran lisp objc perl python scheme TODO
c ecmascript haskell lua ocaml php r shell vala
c++ erlang java ml pascal pike ruby tcl
$ debtags tagshow game::
adventure board card fps platform rpg simulation
arcade board:chess demos mud puzzle rpg:rogue sport
debtags / workflows / search in the tag space.
In that workflow we dont list all facets or all tags but we know a more specific tar or categorization word and we use it to search.
$ debtags tagsearch footag.
debtags / workflows / display tag description
$ debtags tagshow facetFOO::tagBOO eg: $ debtags tagshow devel::compiler Tag: devel::compiler Description: Compiler
As we see most description are almost terse and useless.
debtags / workflows / list deb packages having a certain tag
After having narrowed facets and tags in the one that interest us we can find packages that match those facets and tags using the command:
$ debtags search game::fps / most handy will display the
/ names only of the deb packages
/ that match our tag expression.
$ debtags search game::<tab>
debtags / workflows / combine search terms
$ debtags search 'implemented-in::c++ && game::fps'
debtags / workflows / update tag vocabulary
related workflows : Devuan update?
$ sudo debtags update