{"id":179,"date":"2012-11-25T22:46:15","date_gmt":"2012-11-25T21:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/?p=179"},"modified":"2012-12-03T22:23:30","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T21:23:30","slug":"webpinstant-software-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/","title":{"rendered":"Webpinstant &#8211; Software Search"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">A few years ago I wrote a tool called webpin that allowed people to search for openSUSE packages across all openSUSE repositories, both by package names and their contents.<\/p>\n<p>This was useful for finding where a package for a particular file was located. openSUSE had an awful lot of separate package repositories (There are now over 3,000 for 12.2).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/webpinstant.com\/\">It&#8217;s now back, and better, at http:\/\/webpinstant.com\/<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\/webpinstant1.png\" alt=\"Webpinstant\" \/>\n<p>I have now re-written this tool. It&#8217;s now much faster at both searching and indexing, meaning it can index a lot more and hopefully provide better results.<\/p>\n<p>Sample Searches:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/webpinstant.com\/search\/kde%20irc%20client\">kde irc client<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Brings back konversation and quassel).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/webpinstant.com\/search\/bzcat\">bzcat<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(brings back bzip2 on debian)<\/p>\n<h3>Multiple Distributions<\/h3>\n<p>I have also added support for other distributions including Fedora, Debian, and Ubuntu. In fact any distribution that uses <a href=\"http:\/\/linux.die.net\/man\/8\/createrepo\">repo-md<\/a> or debian style repositories can be easily added to the index.<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\/webpinstant2.png\" alt=\"Select Distribution\" \/>\n<p>So far it has an index of repositories for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>openSUSE 12.1<\/li>\n<li>openSUSE 12.2<\/li>\n<li>Fedora 17<\/li>\n<li>Ubuntu Quantal<\/li>\n<li>Debian Squeeze<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let me know suggestions of more distributions you&#8217;d like to see indexed. RHEL, CENTOS, and SLES seem like obvious candidates.<\/p>\n<h3>Ubuntu Limitations<\/h3>\n<p>openSUSE build service repositories are detected automatically. I&#8217;d like to do the same for Ubuntu PPAs but haven&#8217;t yet worked out how to obtain a list of PPAs programmatically. If you have a suggestion please let me know. In the meantime please do suggest any important PPAs that it would be useful to index.<\/p>\n<p>I also can&#8217;t find the Contents.gz files in Ubuntu PPAs that are available in other Debian repositories. These provide a lot more metadata for searching. Am I just failing to look well enough or are they missing from PPAs?<\/p>\n<h3>Search\/Ranking<\/h3>\n<p>Some of the things indexed include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Package Names<\/li>\n<li>Summaries<\/li>\n<li>Descriptions<\/li>\n<li>RPM provides<\/li>\n<li>Files within packages<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Basically anything found in Primary.xml\/FileLists.xml in repo-md repositories and anything found in the Packages and Contents lists in Debian repositories.<\/p>\n<p>I have also put a lot of work into improving the search ranking based on cases that the original webpin performed poorly on. I suspect there will still be lots of things that are not found or not ranked highly. If you can&#8217;t find what you&#8217;re looking for with webpin then please let me know what your search terms were and if possible what you expected to appear as a result.<\/p>\n<h3>API and Command line app<\/h3>\n<p>I have added support for the old API that the command line webpin app by <a href=\"http:\/\/dev-loki.blogspot.co.uk\/\">Pascal Bleser<\/a> wrote.<\/p>\n<p>You can try it out if you like. To update the tool to use the new webpin on openSUSE 12.2 you need to edit a couple of files. First add the following to distVersionMap in \/usr\/lib\/python2.7\/site-packages\/webpin\/const.py<\/p>\n<pre lang=\"python\">'12.2': 'openSUSE_122',<\/pre>\n<p>Then change the server line in the same file as follows<\/p>\n<pre lang=\"python\">server = 'webpinstant.com'<\/pre>\n<h3>Future Features<\/h3>\n<p>Things I&#8217;d like to add other than more distros \/ repositories include:<\/p>\n<p>* <a href=\"http:\/\/en.opensuse.org\/openSUSE:One_Click_Install\">One Click Install<\/a> support. Adding install links to the search results. This is something that the old webpin had.<br \/>\n* A better API desktop\/command line clients<\/p>\n<h3>Feedback<\/h3>\n<p>Please do let me know bug reports \/ feature requests. In particular I&#8217;m interested in<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What distributions should I index<\/li>\n<li>What repositories should I index?<\/li>\n<li>What searches result in badly ranked results<\/li>\n<li>What future features should I prioritise?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please let me know using email <a href=\"mailto:webpin at benjiweber.co.uk\">webpin at benjiweber.co.uk<\/a> or <a href=\"irc:\/\/irc.freenode.net\/benjiman\">find me on freenode (benjiman).<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/benjiweber\">@benjiweber<\/a> on twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago I wrote a tool called webpin that allowed people to search for openSUSE packages across all openSUSE repositories, both by package names and their contents. This was useful for finding where a package for a particular file was located. openSUSE had an awful lot of separate package repositories (There are now&#8230;  <a href=\"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/\" class=\"more-link\" title=\"Read Webpinstant &#8211; Software Search\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opensuse","category-webpin"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Webpinstant - Software Search - Benji&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Webpinstant - Software Search - Benji&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago I wrote a tool called webpin that allowed people to search for openSUSE packages across all openSUSE repositories, both by package names and their contents. This was useful for finding where a package for a particular file was located. openSUSE had an awful lot of separate package repositories (There are now... Read more &raquo;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Benji&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-25T21:46:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-03T21:23:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\/webpinstant1.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"benji\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"benji\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"benji\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/45ecb36b51f4ce99e6929d2d31ca5c09\"},\"headline\":\"Webpinstant &#8211; Software Search\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-25T21:46:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-03T21:23:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":574,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\\\/webpinstant1.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"openSUSE\",\"webpin\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/\",\"name\":\"Webpinstant - Software Search - Benji&#039;s Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\\\/webpinstant1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-25T21:46:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-03T21:23:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/45ecb36b51f4ce99e6929d2d31ca5c09\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\\\/webpinstant1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\\\/webpinstant1.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/11\\\/25\\\/webpinstant-software-search\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Webpinstant &#8211; Software Search\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Benji&#039;s Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/45ecb36b51f4ce99e6929d2d31ca5c09\",\"name\":\"benji\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/417ada828fa4be09324820d24c0d93c3bfcbae183629e09117c9f4c4ab7ed43a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/417ada828fa4be09324820d24c0d93c3bfcbae183629e09117c9f4c4ab7ed43a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/417ada828fa4be09324820d24c0d93c3bfcbae183629e09117c9f4c4ab7ed43a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"benji\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/benjiweber.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/benji\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Webpinstant - Software Search - Benji&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Webpinstant - Software Search - Benji&#039;s Blog","og_description":"A few years ago I wrote a tool called webpin that allowed people to search for openSUSE packages across all openSUSE repositories, both by package names and their contents. This was useful for finding where a package for a particular file was located. openSUSE had an awful lot of separate package repositories (There are now... Read more &raquo;","og_url":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/","og_site_name":"Benji&#039;s Blog","article_published_time":"2012-11-25T21:46:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-03T21:23:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\/webpinstant1.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"benji","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"benji","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/"},"author":{"name":"benji","@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/45ecb36b51f4ce99e6929d2d31ca5c09"},"headline":"Webpinstant &#8211; Software Search","datePublished":"2012-11-25T21:46:15+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-03T21:23:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/"},"wordCount":574,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\/webpinstant1.png","articleSection":["openSUSE","webpin"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/","url":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/","name":"Webpinstant - Software Search - Benji&#039;s Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\/webpinstant1.png","datePublished":"2012-11-25T21:46:15+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-03T21:23:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/45ecb36b51f4ce99e6929d2d31ca5c09"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\/webpinstant1.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/files.benjiweber.co.uk\/webpinstant1.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/11\/25\/webpinstant-software-search\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Webpinstant &#8211; Software Search"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"Benji&#039;s Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/45ecb36b51f4ce99e6929d2d31ca5c09","name":"benji","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417ada828fa4be09324820d24c0d93c3bfcbae183629e09117c9f4c4ab7ed43a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417ada828fa4be09324820d24c0d93c3bfcbae183629e09117c9f4c4ab7ed43a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417ada828fa4be09324820d24c0d93c3bfcbae183629e09117c9f4c4ab7ed43a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"benji"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk"],"url":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/author\/benji\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjiweber.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}