One of the many useful features on FreshPorts is: what port[s] install[s] this file? That’s the pkg-plist search option. pkg-plist is a file which “lists all the files installed by the port”. However not all ports have a pkg-plist file because the list is compiled automatically. That is why the configure_plist table was created to …
Replacing a column search with a full text search solution Read More »
In this post I will show you how I discovered that the backend was putting data into a new table (generate_plist) but the website was still using the ports.pkg_plist column. The result was stale data being shown on the website (for older ports) or no data at all (for newer ports). How long? Since Oct …
Converting a column-based expression to a row based solution Read More »
One of the lesser known FreshPorts features is searching pkg-plist. You want nslookup and dig but you can’t find the package which installs that. The FreshPorts search can find it for you. When a new commit occurs for a given port, FreshPorts extracts and store the pkg-plist information. This allows you to search. How does …
Getting the pkg-plist contents for a FreeBSD port/package Read More »