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Debian is missing a tool, want to write it?

14 June 2013 21:50

Seeing this piece in the news, about how Debian-Multimedia.org is now unsafe, I was reminded we don't have a tool to manipulate sources.lists entries.

For example:

$ apt-sources list
..
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main

deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main
..

How about listing only my repos?

$ apt-sources list steve.org.uk
deb-src http://packages.steve.org.uk/firefox-wrapper/squeeze/ ./
deb     http://packages.steve.org.uk/firefox-wrapper/squeeze/ ./
deb     http://packages.steve.org.uk/meta/squeeze/ ./
deb-src http://packages.steve.org.uk/meta/squeeze/ ./
deb-src http://packages.steve.org.uk/minidlna/squeeze/ ./
deb     http://packages.steve.org.uk/minidlna/squeeze/ ./

Now add in a command to delete lines matching a given pattern:

# apt-sources delete debian-multimedia.org

Doesn't that seem like a tool that should exist?

I've added this quick hack to this repository which you can submit pull requests against, or use as a base.

TODO: Write the "add" handler. Neaten.

Ever felt jealous that Ubuntu users can add PPAs? Nows your chance to do something like this:

# apt-sources add "deb http://packages.steve.org.uk/lumail/wheezy/ ./"

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