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MrCalvin avatar Ubuntu

C# wrapper for Debian apt library libapt-pkg

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MrCalvin

I need to retrieve package information in my C# application running on Linux. I've tried to use Python.NET which wrap python-apt which wrap libapt-pkg.so, and it works but I would prefer to go more direct by pinvoke libapt-pkg.

But I need help on my DLLImport statement.

When using python-apt I first initialize the apt module, then instantiate the Cache() class and then call the Cache.keys() function which retrieve all package-names as a string array.

If I can get this to work using pinvoke I believe I have a good chance getting the rest working too (retrieve the more advanced stuff)

Just to show some code which doesn't work, but just to get started:

[DllImport("libapt-pkg")]
public static extern dynamic GetPkgCache(Boolean BuildCaches);

dynamic AptCache = GetPkgCache(false);

I've been looking in the header file cachefile.h of the apt project. Maybe these lines are useable for my DllImport statement?

..
inline operator pkgCache &() const {return *Cache;};
inline operator pkgCache *() const {return Cache;};
..
inline pkgCache* GetPkgCache() { BuildCaches(NULL, false); return Cache; };
..

But I'm new to C/C++ so it doesn't make much sense for me at present.

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