Issue
I'm used to search and install packages with apt, under Debian-based distributions, and one useful feature of it is that you can search in the description of packages as well, so you don't need to know the exact name of a package to find it. It can be used in a exploratory way. For example, say I'm searching for packages related to functional programming, but haven't a specific one in mind. I could do just this:
(base) user@desktop:~$ apt-cache search functional | grep 'programming'
libio-async-perl - modules for asynchronous event-driven programming
libjs-underscore - JavaScript's functional programming helper library
afnix-doc - Compiler and run-time for the AFNIX programming language (documentation)
elpa-agda2-mode - dependently typed functional programming language — emacs mode
libavutil-dev - FFmpeg library with functions for simplifying programming - development files
libavutil56 - FFmpeg library with functions for simplifying programming - runtime files
libghc-agda-doc - dependently typed functional programming language; documentation
libghc-generic-deriving-dev - generic programming library for generalised deriving
libghc-generic-deriving-doc - generic programming library for generalised deriving; documentation
libghc-reactive-banana-dev - Library for functional reactive programming (FRP)
libghc-reactive-banana-doc - Library for functional reactive programming (FRP); documentation
elixir - functional meta-programming aware language
elpa-ess - Emacs mode for statistical programming and data analysis
faust - functional programming language for realtime audio applications
faust-common - functional programming language for realtime audio applications - common files
fsharp - functional-first programming language - compiler for the CLI
golang-github-go-ldap-ldap-dev - Basic LDAP v3 functionality for the Go programming language
golang-gopkg-ldap.v3-dev - basic LDAP v3 functionality for the GO programming language
hsbrainfuck - interpreter for the brainfuck programming language
libfaust2 - functional programming language for realtime audio applications - libraries
libfsharp-core4.3-cil - functional-first programming language - core runtime library
libfsharp-data-typeproviders4.4-cil - functional-first programming language - data integration library
libghc-generic-deriving-prof - generic programming library for generalised deriving; profiling libraries
libghc-reactive-banana-prof - Library for functional reactive programming (FRP); profiling libraries
libparanoid-perl - module for safer, more secure programming
libreact-ocaml - functional reactive programming in OCaml (plugins)
libreact-ocaml-dev - functional reactive programming in OCaml
lua-moses - Utility library for functional programming in Lua
node-underscore - JavaScript's functional programming helper library - NodeJS
r-cran-lambda.r - GNU R modeling data with functional programming
r-cran-purrr - GNU R functional programming tools
rust-doc - Rust systems programming language - Documentation
rust-src - Rust systems programming language - source code
rustc - Rust systems programming language
urweb - purely functional language for web programming
wadc - programming environment for creating Doom maps
Now I installed Anaconda, and noticed the package manager provided, conda, seems to search packages by name only, on running "conda search ". Is there a way to make it behave as apt, searching by description as well?
Solution
No, it is not possible to search package descriptions with conda search. The query results of conda search, including those with the --info|-i flag, do not include package description info.
There is limited functionality for retrieving package summaries from Anaconda Cloud. This is provided by the anaconda show command in the package anaconda-client and only provides exact matching (channel and package). For example,
(base) $ anaconda show 'conda-forge/r-purrr'
Using Anaconda API: https://api.anaconda.org
Name: r-purrr
Summary: A complete and consistent functional programming toolkit for R.
Access: public
Package Types: conda
Versions:
+ 0.2.2
+ 0.2.3
+ 0.2.4
+ 0.2.5
+ 0.3.1
+ 0.3.2
+ 0.3.3
+ 0.3.4
To install this package with conda run:
conda install --channel https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge r-purrr
However, this does not search the package descriptions like what is done in OP, but only retrieves info on the queried one.
Answered By - merv
