It might be useful, indeed. But I didn't take the time to check what results it would give: could you please give a sample of the output? Also, is it applicable to a ftp site?

Ok, I'll make one up. Recently I wanted to know what inet daemons are shipped:

susegrep inetd ginetd-0.99.2-161.i386.rpm cd2 xap1 ginetd.rpm ginetd-0.99.2-161.src.rpm cd6 zq2 ginetd.spm inetd-1.0-54.i386.rpm cd1 n1 inetd.rpm inetd-1.0-54.src.rpm cd6 zq2 inetd.spm rinetd-0.61-159.i386.rpm cd1 n1 rinetd.rpm rinetd-0.61-159.src.rpm cd6 zq2 rinetd.spm xinetd-2.1.8.8p3-21.i386.rpm cd1 n1 xinetd.rpm xinetd-2.1.8.8p3-21.src.rpm cd6 zq2 xinetd.spm

This shows long names, version numbers, SuSE series, and CD it's on. The rpm's 1-line summary:

susegrep -s inetd ginetd Tool for editing /etc/inetd.conf inetd The inetd networking daemon kineted Editor for inetd configuration rinetd TCP redirection server sslwrap An encrypting inetd service xinetd Another 'inetd' with expanded functionality

Or the size of the installed package:

susegrep -S inetd ginetd 0.99.2 161 i386 62279 ginetd 0.99.2 161 src 18056 inetd 1.0 54 i386 34683 inetd 1.0 54 src 58771 rinetd 0.61 159 i386 103958 rinetd 0.61 159 src 61878 xinetd 2.1.8.8p3 21 i386 235231 xinetd 2.1.8.8p3 21 src 270610

susegrep -f libjpeg [this shows 32 lines, I'll delete most of them here:] ibmjava2.rpm.ls:/usr/lib/jdk1.3/jre/bin/libjpeg.so

If you're looking for a certain file, say the jpeg library: libgrout.rpm.ls:/usr/i486-linuxaout/lib/libjpeg.a libgrout.rpm.ls:/usr/i486-linuxaout/lib/libjpeg.sa libjpeg.rpm.ls:/usr/lib/libjpeg.a libjpeg.rpm.ls:/usr/lib/libjpeg.la libjpeg.rpm.ls:/usr/lib/libjpeg.so libjpeg.rpm.ls:/usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62 libjpeg.rpm.ls:/usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62.0.0 shlibs5.rpm.ls:/usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib/libjpeg.so shlibs5.rpm.ls:/usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib/libjpeg.so.6 shlibs5.rpm.ls:/usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib/libjpeg.so.6.0.1 susepak.rpm.ls:/usr/share/doc/susehilf/pak/paket_libjpeg.html In order to be able to do this, it's necessary to create an index of all this information. This index only need to be created once and is stored on disk (about 20M, sorry but disk space is cheap these days). Checksums of files and ISO images are generated and stored as well, useful to check whether your CDs are still ok (or the duplicates worked). The big advantage is that it's not necessary to have access to any of the CDs of the distribution. The program can generated indices of any lot of rpms, however the rpms need to be read during index generation, so indexing a remote ftp server would mean getting a local copy first (how else do you want to do this?). If SuSE provided the index that would be great of course... Volker