Score:2

How to find whether a package is documentation?

tr flag

As part of my work, I recursively find the dependencies of a package. While doing that, I like to skip the packages which are documentation. I can see most documentation packages have the suffix .*-doc. I can also see there is an entry Section: doc in the control file. Is there any other way to determine whether a package is a documentation? or does the entry Section: doc in the control file confirms this is a documentation package?

24601 avatar
in flag
you've tagged `Debian" how does this relate to ask ubuntu?
Karthik Nedunchezhiyan avatar
tr flag
I'm using ubuntu packages, but the control file belongs to debian format. I believe anyone who very well knows the control file or ubuntu packages can answer by question.
terdon avatar
cn flag
Unfortunately, the community here is a little bit obsessive about the site being Ubuntu only. I removed the Debian tag since you say you are using Ubuntu packages so the question _is_ about Ubuntu and the mention Debian is just confusing people (someone has already voted to close as off topic).
hr flag
The `-doc` package name suffix certainly doesn't seem to be a reliable indicator, as you can confirm using `aptitude`, for example `aptitude search -F '%p' '?section(doc)' | grep -v -e -doc`
waltinator avatar
it flag
"Skipping the docs" never ends well, 55 years of making mistakes with computers says.
Karthik Nedunchezhiyan avatar
tr flag
Amazing. Thanks for the feedback, Team. I will definitely look into it.
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