PackageKit, the package management framework, has also received some intriguing enhancements in Fedora 12. A new customization for the bash shell will detect when the user attempts to run a command from a package that is not installed and will offer to automatically install the package. This is not fully integrated yet, but users who want to test it can install the Packagekit-command-not-found package.
This is very cool and I’d assume that it would start with the commands for all opensuse standard packages (from oss/non-oss repositories) but could be expanded to include lists from all repositories.
$ pingus
The program 'pingus' can be found in the following package:
* pingus path: /usr/bin/pingus, repository: zypp (games) ]
Try installing with: sudo zypper install pingus
bash: pingus: command not found
It is provided by the package “command-not-found”, installed by default. It uses ZYpp directly instead of PackageKit, but…
PackageKit is included with openSUSE by default, as previously mentioned by others. IIRC the kupdateapplet uses PackageKit.
kde4-kupdateapplet-packagekit
gnome-packagekit
kpackagekit
Um, OK. I’m not saying OpenSUSE needs to use/require packagekit. i don’t like it either. I’m simply talking about the ability to type in a command and get a response saying that’s in a package you don’t have installed, would you like to install it. That’s it.
What does sound clever in packagekit is the capability for a GUI app, like openoffice or something, to send a request to the package manager to offer the user to install a supplementary package, like a font.
It’s a short circuit between layers of the system, and will probably drive the purists nuts, but to me it just sounds easier.