searching for FLOSS packages in arch-based distro? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 8 months ago by linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.de to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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I've been using manjaro for a couple of years and I really like it. especially the wide variety of packages available. Recently been using yay to find/install.

I prefer to run FLOSS packages when they are available. But I do not find a convenient way to preferentially seek these out. Even to know what licenses apply without individually researching each specific package.

It does not seem to be possible to search, filter or sort based on license in the web interface for packagegs or AUR. I do not find anything about it in man pacman(8) or man yay(8).

The only way I have found to find license info from the terminal is using expac. You can use %L to display the license. I guess you could combine this in a search to filter, similar to some of the examples listed on pacman/Tips and tricks - ArchWiki. But I haven't quite got it to work.

This seems like something other people would want but I don't find any available solution for it. Am I missing something? Or is it something with the arch-based distros?

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[-] linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 8 months ago

Yes it would be good to filter, or sort. Have a little icon or color code licenses according to configuration. I'm always annoyed when I discover I accidentally installed some proprietary application. I would always select FLOSS if something is available. And it usually is.

From what I've found, expac would probably be involved in in displaying this information; I couldn't find any more direct way.

I did actually try to write this but I got stuck with my rudimentary skills. (user name is aspirational lol)