On Mon, 4 Nov 2002 grant@netbsd.org wrote:

> >Synopsis:       pkg_* tools should be smarter about reading binary packages

I agree.

> It should not be necessary to read the entire package to query it.

It would be useful to have a single download that contains some info about
all the available packages (for an architecture and a release or
-current).

Then it would be easier to know some basic information about other
packages including required dependencies.

In addition, this could make software installations and upgrades very
easy. For example, you want to upgrade to some package so you can have an
instant tsorted list of dependencies (which you already know are
available). And this can be compared with already installed software. Then
the software can be uninstalled (as needed), required packages downloaded
and installed in order.

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://bsd.reedmedia.net/