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How to use libapt (or libept) in debian-like system to list packages and get their infos?

Asked 2008-12-04T17:51:22.947
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Somebody used libapt or libept to list packages and get informations about package in a debian-like system?

Libapt is not well-documented at all, and i've found few examples and tutorials about libept. Can someone explain me best methods to

  1. get a list of every packages in the apt-system
  2. get informations about single packages (like name, version, dependences, description, etc.
  3. get list of files installed by a single package

Work directly with apt internal files is quite simple, but i want to use a library to respect apt specifications.

c++ debian apt package-managers
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6

Take a look at how apt-cache(8) is implemented. Obtaining the source with apt is easy:

# apt-get source apt

In the source file cmdline/apt-cache.cc theres is a function called DumpPackage() which extracts information from a named file in the cache.

answered 2008-12-04T18:16:17.687

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