[lug] need a way to compare capabilities of arbitrarily different rpm-based distributions

[qqq1one @yahoo.com]

Hi,

I would like to be able to compare the capabilities of two arbitrarily
different rpm-based distributions.  And I want to ignore version
numbers for the comparison itself, but preserve version numbers for the
output if possible.

One way I thought of to do this was to do a directory listings all of
the packages in each distribution and send the output to a different
file for each distribution and then do an sdiff on the 2 files.

However, this doesn't work too well, because sdiff compares the entire
line in each file (including the package version number) and all I
really care about for the comparison itself is just the name of the
package.

e.g., my "ls -1" produced listA for one distribution:

    7colors-0.80-4mdk.i586.rpm
    a2ps-4.13-6mdk.i586.rpm
    acl-1.1.2-2mdk.i586.rpm
    etc...

and produced listB for another distribution:

    a2ps-static-devel-4.13-13mdk.i586.rpm
    acl-2.0.0-1mdk.i586.rpm
    alien-7.32-1mdk.i586.rpm
    etc...

and the sdiff produced this:

    $ sdiff -W listA listB
    7colors-0.80-4mdk.i586.rpm   |
a2ps-static-devel-4.13-13mdk.i586.rpm
    a2ps-4.13-6mdk.i586.rpm      | acl-2.0.0-1mdk.i586.rpm
    acl-1.1.2-2mdk.i586.rpm      | alien-7.32-1mdk.i586.rpm
    etc...

But what I really want is something more like this (comparing package
names, but ignoring their version numbers, and still showing version
numbers) (this would be my first choice):

    $ some-tool-or-custom-script listA listB
    7colors-0.80-4mdk.i586.rpm  <
    a2ps-4.13-6mdk.i586.rpm     <
                                > a2ps-static-devel-4.13-13mdk.i586.rpm
    acl-1.1.2-2mdk.i586.rpm       acl-2.0.0-1mdk.i586.rpm
                                > alien-7.32-1mdk.i586.rpm
    etc...

Or this (comparing package names, but ignoring their version numbers,
and not showing version numbers) (this would be my second choice):

    $ some-tool-or-custom-script listA listB
    7colors                     <
    a2ps                        <
                                > a2ps-static-devel
    acl                           acl
                                > alien

Or even this (comparing only the first N characters of package names,
and, for small enough N, not showing version numbers) (this would be my
third choice):

    $ some-tool-or-custom-script listA listB
    7col                        >
    a2ps                          a2ps
    acl-                          acl-
                                > alie
    etc...

The output wouldn't even have to  be in the 2 column format with diff
indicators (|<>) like sdiff uses, as long as it was still obvious which
list an entry came from.

Does anyone know a way to do any of these or have a better approach altogether?

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