esearch

1. Description

esearch is a small script for the linux distribution Gentoo. It behaves exactly like emerge -s resp. emerge -S. The advantage of esearch over emerge is the search index it uses.

shark (~) $ time emerge -s mozilla > /dev/null

real    0m11.740s
user    0m1.400s
sys     0m0.140s

shark (~) $ time esearch mozilla > /dev/null

real    0m0.108s
user    0m0.095s
sys     0m0.010s

The disadvantage is then of course, that you have to create this index (eupdatedb) which takes some time.

2. News

26 Sep 2004
version 0.7 brings a lot of new features!
- Added a -v/--verbose option to esearch, which shows some additional information about a package. Used some code from Carlos Silva, who wrote a patch for emerge (#11739). Thanks!
- Added a patch from Thomas Buntrock, which adds a -s/--nospinner option to esync. (Fixes #57030).
- Sandro Bonazzola translated the manpages for all the italian users, thanks a lot.
- Fixed bug #58399. Sometimes python doesn't compile the eupdatedb index for any reasons.
- Added patch from Fernando Altomare Serboncini, which changes the behaviour of esearch -c: Now it prints the category also.
- Added patch from Steve Acheson, which adds an -I/--instonly option to esearch. If it is enabled, only packages which are installed will be found.
Thanks to all the people who help esearch to get better!
25 Jul 2004
version 0.6.3:
- Manpages for esync and eupdatedb.
- The License field will be indexed from now on.
- Fixed a bug caused by a new version of python, resulting in "bad digest" messages. Thanks to the guys from the italian forums.
- Sort the ebuilds in the esearch -e view by version.
02 Jul 2004
version 0.6.2:
- Patch from Tavis Ormandy which fixes a security hole in the temp file handling.
- Patch from Roman Kreisel, which adds a -v/--verbose option to esync. With -v enabled esync shows the output from emerge sync.
10 May 2004
version 0.6.1:
- Support for emerge-webrsync!
- esync is using xterm titles to show current action.
- -n/--nocolor option for esync to suppress color codes.
- Lots of bugfixes, thanks to all the people who send me bugreports and mails with feature requests!
06 Feb 2004
version 0.6:
- When using esearch -e ^package$` esearch now shows the available version as default ebuild, so you just have to press enter.
- New --directory/-d option for esearch/eupdatedb, to use an other directory for storing the index file.
- A lot of updates and fixes, see ChangeLog
11 Jan 2004
version 0.5.3:
- Patch from Lars Gustäbel which speeds up the esearch output method for large datasets a lot.
- New script included, called esync, which does emerge sync followed by an eupdatedb and then shows the updates during the sync.
- Some fixes, see ChangeLog for details
20 Oct 2003
version 0.5.2, new functions:
- a new option (--own=pattern, -o pattern) has been added to print the output in a user-defined format, for details see manpage.
- multiple search params are possible, e.g. esearch ^xmms$ ^mozilla$
- a new option for eupdatedb --quiet/-q to show only the summary, fixes bug #32853.
23 Oct 2003
version 0.5.1, 2 bugs are now fixed and esearch now has a manpage, esearch(1).
19 Oct 2003
version 0.5, getopt-support for eupdatedb (--help/--verbose/--nocolor), --ebuild option for esearch to view the ebuilds of found packages, bugfixes.
02 Oct 2003
version 0.4.2, a few bugfixes.
30 Sep 2003
version 0.4.1, see ChangeLog.
19 Sep 2003
esearch has been added to the official portage tree! (app-portage/esearch)
18 Sep 2003
version 0.4, from now on eupdatedb writes the index directly into the file to improve speed.
17 Sep 2003
version 0.3.1, see ChangeLog

3. Example

Output is exactly the same:

root (~) # eupdatedb
 * indexing: 0 ebuilds to go
 * esearch-index generated in 3 minutes and 25 seconds
 * indexed 5515 ebuilds
 * size of esearch-index: 843 kB

shark (~) $ esearch vim$
[ Results for search key : vim$ ]
[ Applications found : 3 ]

*  app-editors/vim
      Latest version available: 6.3-r1
      Latest version installed: 6.3-r1
      Size of downloaded files: 4,680 kB
      Homepage:    http://www.vim.org/
      Description: Vim, an improved vi-style text editor
      License:     vim

*  app-editors/gvim
      Latest version available: 6.3-r1
      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]
      Size of downloaded files: 4,680 kB
      Homepage:    http://www.vim.org/
      Description: GUI version of the Vim text editor
      License:     vim

*  app-editors/kvim [ Masked ]
      Latest version available: 6.2.14
      Latest version installed: 6.2.14
      Size of downloaded files: 4,896 kB
      Homepage:    http://www.freehackers.org/kvim
      Description: KDE editor based on vim
      License:     GPL-2

esearch has an extra option, --compact (short: -c), which will compress the output to a few lines:

shark (~) $ esearch -c vim$
[ I] app-editors/vim (6.3-r1):  Vim, an improved vi-style text editor
[ N] app-editors/gvim (6.3-r1):  GUI version of the Vim text editor
[MI] app-editors/kvim (6.2.14):  KDE editor based on vim

4. Usage

To install esearch just emerge it:

emerge esearch

After that you'll have to execute eupdatedb to generate the searchindex. Now you're ready to use esearch:

esearch (0.7) - Replacement for 'emerge search' with search-index

Usage: esearch [ options ] pattern
Options:
  --searchdesc, -S
    Search package descriptions as well

  --fullname, -F
    Search packages full name (includes category)

  --instonly, -I
    Find only packages which are installed

  --compact, -c
    More compact output format

  --verbose, -v
    Give a lot of additional information (slow!)

  --ebuild, -e
    View ebuilds of found packages

  --own=format, -o format
    Use your own output format, see manpage for details of format

  --directory=dir, -d dir
    Use dir as directory to load esearch index from

  --nocolor, -n
    Don't use ANSI codes for colored output

5. ChangeLog

*esearch-0.7 (26 Sep 2004)

  26 Sep 2004; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added patch from Steve Acheson , which
  adds an -I/--instonly option to esearch. If it is enabled,
  only packages which are installed will be found.

  26 Sep 2004; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added patch from Fernando Altomare Serboncini ,
  which changes the behaviour of 'esearch -c': Now it
  prints the category also.

  15 Sep 2004; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Fixed bug #58399. Sometimes python doesn't compile the eupdatedb
  index for any reasons.

  15 Sep 2004; David Peter  it/esearch.1,
  it/eupdatedb.1, it/esync.1:
  Added the italian manpages created by Sandro Bonazzola
  , thanks a lot.

  15 Sep 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Added a patch from Thomas Buntrock
  , which adds
  a -s/--nospinner option to esync. (Fixes #57030)

  17 Aug 2004; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added a -v/--verbose option to esearch, which shows some
  additional information about a package. Used some code
  from Carlos Silva , who wrote
  a patch for emerge (#11739). Thanks!

  17 Aug 2004; David Peter  esearch.py,
  eupdatedb.py, esync.py:
  Various small code cleanups.

*esearch-0.6.3 (25 Jul 2004)

  08 Jul 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Sort the ebuilds by version (using portage.pkgcmp).

  08 Jul 2004; David Peter  esearch.1,
  eupdatedb.1, esync.1:
  Added manpages for eupdatedb and esync and updated the one
  for esearch.

  08 Jul 2004; David Peter  eupdatedb.py,
  esearch.py, esync.py:
  Added a 'dbversion' to the esearch index, to be sure it is
  not outdated.

  06 Jul 2004; David Peter  eupdatedb.py,
  esearch.py:
  Added the "License" field to the index and the output of
  esearch.

  06 Jul 2004; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Updated file handling, so there are no "bad digests"
  anymore. Thanks to Danilo, and the other guys from
  the italian forums.

*esearch-0.6.2 (30 Jun 2004)

  30 Jun 2004; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Patch from Tavis Ormandy  which fixes
  a security hole in the temp file handling.

  16 May 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Patch from Roman Kreisel , which
  adds a -v/--verbose option to esync. With -v enabled
  esync shows the output from 'emerge sync'.

*esearch-0.6.1 (10 May 2004)

  10 May 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Showing current action in xterm title.

  02 May 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Added message, in case there are no updates.

  03 Apr 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Sort updated packages in output.

  28 Mar 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Support for emerge-webrsync (--webrsync/-w).

  28 Mar 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Added getopt including --help/-h, --nocolor/-n. Now also checking
  if eupdatedb was successful.

  15 Feb 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  use `/usr/sbin/eupdatedb` instead of `eupdatedb`, this
  fixes #41554.

  08 Feb 2004; David Peter  esearch.py:
  corrected typo (fixes #40832).

*esearch-0.6 (06 Feb 2004)

  04 Feb 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Small bugfix in esync: test if esearchdb exists.

  25 Jan 2004; David Peter  esearch.py,
  eupdatedb.py, esync.py:
  Added descriptions on the beginning to all three files.

  25 Jan 2004; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Added a warning, if ACCEPT_KEYWORDS is set in environment,
  because this will result in a modified index file.

  25 Jan 2004; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Test on startup, if there is already another eupdatedb process
  running, thanks to Marius Mauch .

  25 Jan 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Fixed traceback in esync, in case /tmp/esync(old|new)tree.pyc
  already existed. (Fixes #39629)

  22 Jan 2004; David Peter  esearch.py, eupdatedb.py:
  New -d/--directory option for both, esearch and eupdatedb, to store the
  esearch index in an other directory than /var/cache/edb/.

  22 Jan 2004; David Peter  esearch.py:
  When using `esearch -e ^package$`, esearch now shows the
  available version as default ebuild, so you just have to
  press enter.

  22 Jan 2004; David Peter  esearch.py:
  KeyboardInterrupt handling for `esearch -e`.

*esearch-0.5.3 (11 Jan 2004)

  11 Jan 2004; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Added KeyboardInterrupt handling.

  11 Jan 2004; David Peter  esearch.py, eupdatedb.py:
  sys.path work-around for portage python modules.

  11 Jan 2004; David Peter  esync.py:
  Added esync, a script which does `emerge sync` followed by
  a `eupdatedb` and then shows the updates during the sync.

  13 Dec 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added a patch from Lars Gust�bel  which speeds
  up the esearch output method for large datasets a lot.

  11 Dec 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Changed colors in compact mode a bit to fit the behaviour
  of emerge: update [U] and version are now in turquoise.

*esearch-0.5.2 (20 Oct 2003)

  14 Nov 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added --own=format/-o format to use a user-defined output
  format. See manpage for details and examples.

  13 Nov 2003; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Added --quiet/-q mode to show only the summary of the eupdatedb
  output. fixes bug #32853 (http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32853).

  13 Nov 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added support for multiple search patterns.

*esearch-0.5.1 (23 Oct 2003)

  21 Oct 2003; David Peter  esearch.1:
  Added manpage esearch.1 to esearch.

  21 Oct 2003; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Fixed small countdown bug, eupdatedb wasn't counting to zero
  because of invalid ebuilds.

  20 Oct 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Fixed bug, ebuilds are now sorted properly.

*esearch-0.5 (19 Oct 2003)

  19 Oct 2003; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Added getopt support. --nocolor/-n and --verbose/-v to show categories
  while updating index.

  18 Oct 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added --ebuild/-e option to view ebuilds of found packages. Inspired
  by http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=93334.

  18 Oct 2003; David Peter  esearch.py, eupdatedb.py:
  Changed header, so it should work with every python version.

*esearch-0.4.2 (02 Oct 2003)

  02 Oct 2003; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  replaced the counter (0 to 100 percent) by an ebuild-countdown,
  because the display was often wrong.

  02 Oct 2003; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  fixed bug #30171 (http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30171)

*esearch-0.4.1 (30 Sep 2003)

  29 Sep 2003; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  write data into tempfile first, so esearch can be used while updating
  esearchdb

  29 Sep 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added getopt support

  29 Sep 2003; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  Fixed small bug, eupdatedb sometimes showed 101% while indexing ebuilds

  28 Sep 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  Added patch from Eldad Zack  to allow searching for
  full names (e.g. app-portage/esearch)

*esearch-0.4 (18 Sep 2003)

  18 Sep 2003; David Peter  eupdatedb.py:
  no longer writing into memory, but directly into file => speedup

  18 Sep 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  added colored help-message

*esearch-0.3.1 (17 Sep 2003)

  17 Sep 2003; David Peter  esearch.py:
  added feature which fixes wrong regexps (e.g. mysql++ -> mysql)

6. Download

Some older versions:

7. Bugreports

Please report bugs via bugs.gentoo.org or send a mail.