diff options
74 files changed, 416 insertions, 844 deletions
diff --git a/gnu/packages/algebra.scm b/gnu/packages/algebra.scm index 68a17039a7..b70dd91099 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/algebra.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/algebra.scm @@ -153,16 +153,10 @@ PARI is also available as a C library to allow for faster computations.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/bc/") (synopsis "Arbitrary precision numeric processing language") (description - "bc is an arbitrary precision numeric processing language. Syntax -is similar to C, but differs in many substantial areas. It supports -interactive execution of statements. bc is a utility included in the -POSIX P1003.2/D11 draft standard. - -Since the POSIX document does not specify how bc must be implemented, -this version does not use the historical method of having bc be a -compiler for the dc calculator. This version has a single executable -that both compiles the language and runs the resulting `byte code'. The -byte code is not the dc language.") + "bc is an arbitrary precision numeric processing language. It includes +an interactive environment for evaluating mathematical statements. Its +syntax is similar to that of C, so basic usage is familiar. It also includes +\"dc\", a reverse-polish calculator.") (license gpl2+))) (define-public fftw diff --git a/gnu/packages/aspell.scm b/gnu/packages/aspell.scm index 0b8d761266..c1db358a3b 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/aspell.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/aspell.scm @@ -40,14 +40,8 @@ (home-page "http://aspell.net/") (synopsis "Spell checker") (description - "GNU Aspell is a free spell checker designed to eventually replace -Ispell. It can either be used as a library or as an independent spell -checker. Its main feature is that it does a superior job of suggesting -possible replacements for a misspelled word than just about any other -spell checker out there for the English language. Unlike Ispell, Aspell -can also easily check documents in UTF-8 without having to use a special -dictionary. Aspell will also do its best to respect the current locale -setting. Other advantages over Ispell include support for using -multiple dictionaries at once and intelligently handling personal -dictionaries when more than one Aspell process is open at once.") + "Aspell is a spell-checker which can be used either as a library or as +a standalone program. Notable features of Aspell include its full support of +documents written in the UTF-8 encoding and its ability to use multiple +dictionaries, including personal ones.") (license lgpl2.1+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/autotools.scm b/gnu/packages/autotools.scm index 580e43eff3..ab0c7dcbdf 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/autotools.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/autotools.scm @@ -52,13 +52,11 @@ "http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/") (synopsis "Create source code configuration scripts") (description - "GNU Autoconf is an extensible package of M4 macros that produce -shell scripts to automatically configure software source code -packages. These scripts can adapt the packages to many kinds of -UNIX-like systems without manual user intervention. Autoconf -creates a configuration script for a package from a template -file that lists the operating system features that the package -can use, in the form of M4 macro calls.") + "Autoconf offers the developer a robust set of M4 macros which expand +into shell code to test the features of Unix-like systems and to adapt +automatically their software package to these systems. The resulting shell +scripts are self-contained and portable, freeing the user from needing to +know anything about Autoconf or M4.") (license gpl3+))) ; some files are under GPLv2+ (define-public autoconf-wrapper @@ -202,9 +200,10 @@ exec ~a --no-auto-compile \"$0\" \"$@\" (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/") (synopsis "Making GNU standards-compliant Makefiles") (description - "GNU Automake is a tool for automatically generating -`Makefile.in' files compliant with the GNU Coding -Standards. Automake requires the use of Autoconf.") + "Automake the part of the GNU build system for producing standards- +compliant Makefiles. Build requirements are entered in an intuitive format +and then Automake works with Autoconf to produce a robust Makefile, +simplifying the entire process for the developer.") (license gpl2+))) ; some files are under GPLv3+ (define-public libtool @@ -258,11 +257,8 @@ Standards. Automake requires the use of Autoconf.") ,(search-patch "libtool-skip-tests.patch")))) (synopsis "Generic shared library support tools") (description - "GNU libtool is a generic library support script. Libtool hides the -complexity of using shared libraries behind a consistent, portable interface. - -To use libtool, add the new generic library building commands to your -Makefile, Makefile.in, or Makefile.am. See the documentation for -details.") + "Libtool is a script to help in the creation of shared libraries. By +presenting a consistent, portable interface, it hides the complexity of +building usable shared libraries.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/base.scm b/gnu/packages/base.scm index f5baf1a612..8cee8f850b 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/base.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/base.scm @@ -63,7 +63,10 @@ (assoc-ref %build-inputs "gawk"))))) (inputs `(("gawk" ,gawk))) (synopsis "Hello, GNU world: An example GNU package") - (description "Yeah...") + (description + "GNU Hello prints the message \"Hello, world!\" and then exits. It +serves as an example of standard GNU coding practices. As such, it supports +command-line arguments, multiple languages, and so on.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/hello/") (license gpl3+))) @@ -81,9 +84,12 @@ (build-system gnu-build-system) (synopsis "Print lines matching a pattern") (description - "The grep command searches one or more input files for lines containing a -match to a specified pattern. By default, grep prints the matching -lines.") + "grep is a tool for finding text inside files. Text is found by +matching a pattern provided by the user in one or many files. The pattern +may be provided as a basic, extended, or Perl-style regular expression, as +well as a list of fixed strings. By default, the matching text is simply +printed to the screen, however the output can be greatly customized to +include, for example, line numbers.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/"))) @@ -114,11 +120,10 @@ lines.") (string-append bash "/bin/bash"))))) %standard-phases)))) (description - "Sed (stream editor) isn't really a true text editor or text processor. -Instead, it is used to filter text, i.e., it takes text input and performs -some operation (or set of operations) on it and outputs the modified text. -Sed is typically used for extracting part of a file using pattern matching or -substituting multiple occurrences of a string within a file.") + "Sed is a non-interactive, text stream editor. It receives a text +input from a file or from standard input and it then applies a series of text +editing commands to the stream and prints its output to standard output. It +is often used for substituting text patterns in a stream.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/sed/"))) @@ -139,16 +144,11 @@ substituting multiple occurrences of a string within a file.") `(#:patches (list (assoc-ref %build-inputs "patch/gets")))) (synopsis "Managing tar archives") (description - "The Tar program provides the ability to create tar archives, as well as -various other kinds of manipulation. For example, you can use Tar on -previously created archives to extract files, to store additional files, or -to update or list files which were already stored. - -Initially, tar archives were used to store files conveniently on magnetic -tape. The name \"Tar\" comes from this use; it stands for tape archiver. -Despite the utility's name, Tar can direct its output to available devices, -files, or other programs (using pipes), it can even access remote devices or -files (as archives).") + "Tar provides the ability to create tar archives, as well as the +ability to extract, update or list files in an existing archive. It is +useful for combining many files into one larger file, while maintaining +directory structure and file information such as permissions and +creation/modification dates.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/"))) @@ -172,9 +172,11 @@ files (as archives).") ) (synopsis "Apply differences to originals, with optional backups") (description - "GNU Patch takes a patch file containing a difference listing produced by -the diff program and applies those differences to one or more original files, -producing patched versions.") + "Patch is a program that applies changes to files based on differences +laid out by the program \"diff\". The changes may be applied to one or more +files depending on the contents of the diff file. It accepts several +different diff formats. It may also be used to revert previously applied +differences.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch/"))) @@ -192,31 +194,11 @@ producing patched versions.") (build-system gnu-build-system) (synopsis "Comparing and merging files") (description - "GNU Diffutils is a package of several programs related to finding -differences between files. - -Computer users often find occasion to ask how two files differ. Perhaps one -file is a newer version of the other file. Or maybe the two files started out -as identical copies but were changed by different people. - -You can use the diff command to show differences between two files, or each -corresponding file in two directories. diff outputs differences between files -line by line in any of several formats, selectable by command line -options. This set of differences is often called a ‘diff’ or ‘patch’. For -files that are identical, diff normally produces no output; for -binary (non-text) files, diff normally reports only that they are different. - -You can use the cmp command to show the offsets and line numbers where two -files differ. cmp can also show all the characters that differ between the -two files, side by side. - -You can use the diff3 command to show differences among three files. When two -people have made independent changes to a common original, diff3 can report -the differences between the original and the two changed versions, and can -produce a merged file that contains both persons' changes together with -warnings about conflicts. - -You can use the sdiff command to merge two files interactively.") + "Diffutils is a package containing several tool for finding the +differences between files. The diff command is used to show how two files +differ, while cmp shows the offsets and line numbers where they differ. +diff3 allows you to compare three files. Finally, sdiff offers an +interactive means to merge two files.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/"))) @@ -245,18 +227,12 @@ You can use the sdiff command to merge two files interactively.") '()))) (synopsis "Operating on files matching given criteria") (description - "The GNU Find Utilities are the basic directory searching utilities of -the GNU operating system. These programs are typically used in conjunction -with other programs to provide modular and powerful directory search and file -locating capabilities to other commands. - -The tools supplied with this package are: - - * find - search for files in a directory hierarchy; - * locate - list files in databases that match a pattern; - * updatedb - update a file name database; - * xargs - build and execute command lines from standard input. -") + "Findutils supplies the basic file directory searching utilities of the +GNU system. It consists of two primary searching utilities: \"find\" +recursively searches for files in a directory according to given criteria and +\"locate\" lists files in a database that match a query. Two auxiliary tools +are included: \"updatedb\" updates a file name database and \"xargs\" may be used +to apply commands to file search results.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/"))) @@ -297,9 +273,10 @@ The tools supplied with this package are: %standard-phases))) (synopsis "Core GNU utilities (file, text, shell)") (description - "The GNU Core Utilities are the basic file, shell and text manipulation -utilities of the GNU operating system. These are the core utilities which -are expected to exist on every operating system.") + "Coreutils includes all of the basic commandline tools that are +expected in a POSIX system. These provide the basic file, shell and text +manipulation functions of the GNU system. Most of these tools offer extended +functionality beyond that which is outlined in the POSIX standard.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/"))) @@ -332,13 +309,12 @@ are expected to exist on every operating system.") %standard-phases))) (synopsis "Remake files automatically") (description - "Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and other -non-source files of a program from the program's source files. - -Make gets its knowledge of how to build your program from a file called the -makefile, which lists each of the non-source files and how to compute it from -other files. When you write a program, you should write a makefile for it, so -that it is possible to use Make to build and install the program.") + "Make is a program that is used to control the production of +executables or other files from their source files. The process is +controlled from a Makefile, in which the developer specifies how each file is +generated from its source. It has powerful dependency resolution and the +ability to determine when files have to be regenerated after their sources +change.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/make/"))) @@ -378,9 +354,11 @@ that it is possible to use Make to build and install the program.") (synopsis "Binary utilities: bfd gas gprof ld") (description - "The GNU Binutils are a collection of binary tools. The main ones are -`ld' (the GNU linker) and `as' (the GNU assembler). They also include the -BFD (Binary File Descriptor) library, `gprof', `nm', `strip', etc.") + "GNU Binutils is a collection of tools for working with binary files. +Most notable are \"ld\", a linker, and \"as\", an assembler. Several other tools +are included, such as a program to display binary profiling information, a +tool to list the strings in a binary file, and tools for working with +archives.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/bash.scm b/gnu/packages/bash.scm index aa3f397a52..bc91993978 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/bash.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/bash.scm @@ -85,13 +85,12 @@ %standard-phases))) (synopsis "The GNU Bourne-Again SHell") (description - "Bash is the shell, or command language interpreter, that will appear in -the GNU operating system. Bash is an sh-compatible shell that incorporates -useful features from the Korn shell (ksh) and C shell (csh). It is intended -to conform to the IEEE POSIX P1003.2/ISO 9945.2 Shell and Tools standard. It -offers functional improvements over sh for both programming and interactive -use. In addition, most sh scripts can be run by Bash without -modification.") + "Bash is the shell, or commandline interpreter, of the GNU system. It +is compatible with the Bourne Shell, but it also integrates useful features +from the Korn Shell and the C Shell and new improvements of its own. It +allows commandline editing, unlimited command history, shell functions and +aliases, and job control while still allowing most sh scripts to be run +without modification.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/")))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/bison.scm b/gnu/packages/bison.scm index 2d2209c4ff..8782096cf0 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/bison.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/bison.scm @@ -46,15 +46,8 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/") (synopsis "Parser generator") (description - "Bison is a general-purpose parser generator that converts an -annotated context-free grammar into an LALR(1) or GLR parser for -that grammar. Once you are proficient with Bison, you can use -it to develop a wide range of language parsers, from those used -in simple desk calculators to complex programming languages. - -Bison is upward compatible with Yacc: all properly-written Yacc -grammars ought to work with Bison with no change. Anyone -familiar with Yacc should be able to use Bison with little -trouble. You need to be fluent in C or C++ programming in order -to use Bison.") + "Bison is a general-purpose parser generator. It can build a +deterministic LR or generalized LR parser from an annotated, context- free +grammar. It is versatile enough to have a wide variety of applications, from +parsers for simple tools up to parsers for complex programming languages.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/cdrom.scm b/gnu/packages/cdrom.scm index 40480fa704..49840ad69f 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/cdrom.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/cdrom.scm @@ -85,9 +85,11 @@ caching facility provided by the library.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/libcdio/") (synopsis "CD Input and Control library") (description - "GNU libcdio is a library for OS-idependent CD-ROM and CD image access. -It includes a library for working with ISO-9660 filesystems (libiso9660), as -well as utility programs such as an audio CD player and an extractor.") + "The GNU Compact Disc Input and Control Library (libcdio) is a library +for CD-ROM and CD image file access. It allows the developer to add CD +access to an application without having to worry about the OS- and +device-dependent properties of CD-ROM or the specific details of CD image +formats.") (license gpl3+))) (define-public xorriso @@ -111,12 +113,11 @@ well as utility programs such as an audio CD player and an extractor.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/") (synopsis "Create, manipulate, burn ISO-9660 filesystems") (description - "GNU xorriso copies file objects from POSIX compliant filesystems into -Rock Ridge enhanced ISO 9660 filesystems and allows session-wise manipulation -of such filesystems. It can load the management information of existing ISO -images and it writes the session results to optical media or to filesystem -objects. Vice versa xorriso is able to copy file objects out of ISO 9660 -filesystems.") + "xorriso is a tool for copying files to and from ISO 9660 Rock Ridge, +a.k.a Compact Disc File System, filesystems and it allows session- wise +manipulation of them. It features a formatter and burner for CD DVD and BD. +It can operate on existing ISO images or it can create new ones. xorriso can +then be used to copy files directly into or out of ISO files.") (license gpl3+))) (define-public cdparanoia diff --git a/gnu/packages/cflow.scm b/gnu/packages/cflow.scm index caf690bc4c..52552e3fe1 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/cflow.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/cflow.scm @@ -38,14 +38,8 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/cflow/") (synopsis "Create a graph of control flow within a program") (description - "GNU cflow analyzes a collection of C source files and prints a -graph, charting control flow within the program. - -GNU cflow is able to produce both direct and inverted flowgraphs -for C sources. Optionally a cross-reference listing can be -generated. Two output formats are implemented: POSIX and GNU -(extended). - -The package also provides Emacs major mode for examining the -produced flowcharts in Emacs.") + "cflow analyzes C source files and produces a graph charting the +control flow of the program. It can output the graph in several styles and +in either the POSIX format or in an extended GNU format. cflow also includes +a major mode for Emacs for examining the flowcharts that it produces.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/compression.scm b/gnu/packages/compression.scm index 0536cd9ed9..df0acd9cc2 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/compression.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/compression.scm @@ -80,13 +80,7 @@ in compression.") ;; FIXME: The test suite wants `less', and optionally Perl. '(#:tests? #f)) (description - "gzip (GNU zip) is a popular data compression program written by Jean-loup -Gailly for the GNU project. Mark Adler wrote the decompression part. - -We developed this program as a replacement for compress because of the Unisys -and IBM patents covering the LZW algorithm used by compress. These patents -made it impossible for us to use compress, and we needed a replacement. The -superior compression ratio of gzip is just a bonus.") + "GNU Gzip is a data compression and decompression program.") (license license:gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/cpio.scm b/gnu/packages/cpio.scm index 43d5a1e623..e9d9bd5adf 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/cpio.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/cpio.scm @@ -39,14 +39,9 @@ (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/") (synopsis "Manage cpio and tar file archives") (description - "GNU Cpio copies files into or out of a cpio or tar archive. The -archive can be another file on the disk, a magnetic tape, or a pipe. - -GNU Cpio supports the following archive formats: binary, old ASCII, new -ASCII, crc, HPUX binary, HPUX old ASCII, old tar, and POSIX.1 tar. The -tar format is provided for compatability with the tar program. By -default, cpio creates binary format archives, for compatibility with -older cpio programs. When extracting from archives, cpio automatically -recognizes which kind of archive it is reading and can read archives -created on machines with a different byte-order.") + "Cpio copies files into or out of cpio or tar archives. In fact, many +formats are supported, including legacy formats. The format is determined +automatically by the program and is handled appropriately. Furthermore, the +location of the archive is not important. It can be another file on the +drive, a tape, or data on a pipe.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/cppi.scm b/gnu/packages/cppi.scm index d28fc40173..fc117162bb 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/cppi.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/cppi.scm @@ -37,9 +37,8 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/cppi/") (synopsis "Indent C preprocessor directives to reflect nesting and more") (description - "GNU cppi indents C preprocessor directives to reflect their nesting and -ensure that there is exactly one space character between each #if, #elif, -#define directive and the following token. The number of spaces between the -`#' and the following directive must correspond to the level of nesting of -that directive.") + "GNU Cppi processes C source code files to properly indent the +preprocessor directives to reflect their nesting. It also performs other +standardizations, such as correcting the number of spaces between directives +and the text following them.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/ddrescue.scm b/gnu/packages/ddrescue.scm index f990199a62..13fac28cc2 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/ddrescue.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/ddrescue.scm @@ -40,19 +40,8 @@ (synopsis "Data recovery utility") (native-inputs `(("lzip" ,lzip))) (description - "GNU Ddrescue is a data recovery tool. It copies data from one -file or block device (e.g., hard disk, CD-ROM) to another, trying hard to -rescue data in case of read errors. - -The basic operation of Ddrescue is fully automatic. That is, you don't -have to wait for an error, stop the program, read the log, run it in -reverse mode, etc. - -If you use the logfile feature of Ddrescue, the data is rescued very -efficiently (only the needed blocks are read). Also, you can interrupt -the rescue at any time and resume it later at the same point. - -Automatic merging of backups: If you have two or more damaged copies of -a file and run Ddrescue on all of them, one at a time, with the same -output file, you will probably obtain a complete and error-free file.") + "Ddrescue is a fully automated data recovery tool. It copies data from +one file to another, working to rescue data in case of read errors. The +program also includes a tool for manipulating its log- files, which are used +to recover data more efficiently by only reading the necessary blocks.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/dejagnu.scm b/gnu/packages/dejagnu.scm index 3318c81726..b32772b215 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/dejagnu.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/dejagnu.scm @@ -77,12 +77,8 @@ "http://www.gnu.org/software/dejagnu/") (synopsis "GNU software testing framework") (description - "DejaGnu is a framework for testing other programs. Its purpose -is to provide a single front end for all tests. Think of it as a -custom library of Tcl procedures crafted to support writing a -test harness. A test harness is the testing infrastructure that -is created to support a specific program or tool. Each program -can have multiple testsuites, all supported by a single test -harness. DejaGnu is written in Expect, which in turn uses Tcl -- -Tool command language.") + "DejaGnu is a framework for testing software. In effect, it serves as +a front-end for all tests written for a program. Thus, each program can have +multiple test suites, which are then all managed by a single, so-called \"test +harness.\"") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/ed.scm b/gnu/packages/ed.scm index b662b59a86..4a2d524417 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/ed.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/ed.scm @@ -45,12 +45,9 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/ed/") (synopsis "Line-oriented text editor") (description - "GNU ed is a line-oriented text editor. It is used to create, -display, modify and otherwise manipulate text files, both -interactively and via shell scripts. A restricted version of ed, -red, can only edit files in the current directory and cannot -execute shell commands. Ed is the \"standard\" text editor in the -sense that it is the original editor for Unix, and thus widely -available. For most purposes, however, it is superseded by -full-screen editors such as GNU Emacs or GNU Moe.") + "Ed is a line-oriented text editor: rather than offering an overview of +a document, ed performs editing one line at a time. It can be operated both +interactively and via shell scripts. Its method of command input allows +complex tasks to be performed in an automated way, however it has largely +been superceded by full-screen editors like Emacs or Moe.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/emacs.scm b/gnu/packages/emacs.scm index 53ec9a04b7..181e2c47ee 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/emacs.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/emacs.scm @@ -89,20 +89,13 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/") (synopsis "The extensible, customizable, self-documenting text editor") (description - "GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more. At its -core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp -programming language with extensions to support text editing. - -The features of GNU Emacs include: content-sensitive editing modes, -including syntax coloring, for a wide variety of file types including -plain text, source code, and HTML; complete built-in documentation, -including a tutorial for new users; full Unicode support for nearly all -human languages and their scripts; highly customizable, using Emacs -Lisp code or a graphical interface; a large number of extensions that -add other functionality, including a project planner, mail and news -reader, debugger interface, calendar, and more. Many of these -extensions are distributed with GNU Emacs; others are available -separately.") + "Emacs is an extensible and highly customizable text editor. It is +based on an Emacs Lisp interpreter which has extensions to support text +editing. Due to its unique structure, it can be configured in an infinite +multitude of ways, which has given rise to a vast array of packages that have +been written for it that do everything from working as an email client to +communicating online via IRC or XMPP. Emacs is fully self-documenting and it +features full Unicode support for nearly every human language.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/fdisk.scm b/gnu/packages/fdisk.scm index 6248feb98b..dca77c4d6e 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/fdisk.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/fdisk.scm @@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/fdisk/") (synopsis "Low-level disk partitioning and formatting") (description - "GNU Fdisk provides alternatives to util-linux fdisk and util-linux -cfdisk. It uses GNU Parted.") + "GNU fdisk provides a GNU version of the common disk partitioning tool +fdisk. fdisk is used for the creation and manipulation of disk partition +tables, and it understands a variety of different formats.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/freeipmi.scm b/gnu/packages/freeipmi.scm index a122f7e00c..06917e1949 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/freeipmi.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/freeipmi.scm @@ -41,13 +41,9 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/") (synopsis "Platform management, including sensor and power monitoring") (description - "GNU FreeIPMI provides in-band and out-of-band IPMI software based on the -IPMI v1.5/2.0 specification. The IPMI specification defines a set of -interfaces for platform management and is implemented by a number vendors for -system management. The features of IPMI that most users will be interested in -are sensor monitoring, system event monitoring, power control, and -serial-over-LAN (SOL). The FreeIPMI tools and libraries listed below should -provide users with the ability to access and utilize these and many other -features. A number of useful features for large HPC or cluster environments -have also been implemented into FreeIPMI.") + "FreeIPMI is a collection of in-band and out-of-band IPMI software in +accordance with the IPMI v1.5/2.0 specification. These programs provide a +set of interfaces for platform management. Common functionality includes +sensor monitoring, system event monitoring, power control and +serial-over-LAN.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gawk.scm b/gnu/packages/gawk.scm index aff856d9f3..06895f20dd 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gawk.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gawk.scm @@ -65,14 +65,9 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/") (synopsis "A text scanning and processing language") (description - "Many computer users need to manipulate text files: extract and then -operate on data from parts of certain lines while discarding the rest, make -changes in various text files wherever certain patterns appear, and so on. -To write a program to do these things in a language such as C or Pascal is a -time-consuming inconvenience that may take many lines of code. The job is -easy with awk, especially the GNU implementation: Gawk. - -The awk utility interprets a special-purpose programming language that makes -it possible to handle many data-reformatting jobs with just a few lines of -code.") + "Gawk is an implementation of Awk, a specialised programming language +for the easy manipulation of formatted text, such as tables of data. The GNU +implementation of Awk features a number of extensions beyond the traditional +implementations, making writing powerful text manipulation scripts a simple +task compared to writing similar programs in C.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gcal.scm b/gnu/packages/gcal.scm index d6adc8083d..ae61fa2299 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gcal.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gcal.scm @@ -37,13 +37,11 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gcal") (synopsis "Calculating and printing a wide variety of calendars") (description - "Gcal is a program for calculating and printing calendars. Gcal displays -hybrid and proleptic Julian and Gregorian calendar sheets,respectively for one -month, three months, or a whole year. It also displays eternal holiday lists -for many countries around the globe, and features a very powerful creation of -fixed date lists that can be used for reminding purposes. Gcal can calculate -various astronomical data and times of the Sun and the Moon for pleasure at -any location, precisely enough for most civil purposes. Gcal supports some -other calendar systems, for example, the Chinese and Japanese calendars, the -Hebrew calendar, and the civil Islamic calendar, too.") + "Gcal is a program to calculate and print calendars on the command- +line. Calendars can be printed in 1-month, 3-month or whole-year views. In +addition, eternal holiday lists can be generated for many countries, which +can be complemented by user-made lists of fixed dates to make an agenda. +Gcal can also calculate astronomical data, such as the phases of the moon, +and supports alternative calendar formats: Julian, Gregorian, Islamic, +Chinese and more.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gcc.scm b/gnu/packages/gcc.scm index c1a2ce61c5..cececcacd3 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gcc.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gcc.scm @@ -194,12 +194,9 @@ where the OS part is overloaded to denote a specific ABI---into GCC (properties `((gcc-libc . ,(assoc-ref inputs "libc")))) (synopsis "GNU Compiler Collection") (description - "The GNU Compiler Collection includes compiler front ends for C, C++, -Objective-C, Fortran, OpenMP for C/C++/Fortran, Java, and Ada, as well as -libraries for these languages (libstdc++, libgcj, libgomp,...). - -GCC development is a part of the GNU Project, aiming to improve the compiler -used in the GNU system including the GNU/Linux variant.") + "GCC is the GNU Compiler Collection. It provides compiler front-ends +for several languages, including C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, Ada, and +Go. It also includes standard libraries for these languages.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://gcc.gnu.org/")))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gdb.scm b/gnu/packages/gdb.scm index 0afe5e6f6a..09e00aaeb1 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gdb.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gdb.scm @@ -59,7 +59,9 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/") (synopsis "The GNU debugger") (description - "GDB, the GNU Project debugger, allows you to see what is going -on `inside' another program while it executes -- or what another -program was doing at the moment it crashed.") + "GDB is the GNU debugger. With it, you can monitor what a program is +doing while it runs or what it was doing just before a crash. It allows you +to specify the runtime conditions, to define breakpoints, and to change how +the program is running to try to fix bugs. It can be used to debug programs +written in C, C++, Ada, Objective-C, Pascal and more.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gdbm.scm b/gnu/packages/gdbm.scm index 6159cc25da..a43db9243e 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gdbm.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gdbm.scm @@ -40,19 +40,7 @@ (synopsis "Hash library of database functions compatible with traditional dbm") (description - "GNU dbm (or GDBM, for short) is a library of database functions -that use extensible hashing and work similar to the standard UNIX dbm. -These routines are provided to a programmer needing to create and -manipulate a hashed database. - -The basic use of GDBM is to store key/data pairs in a data file. Each -key must be unique and each key is paired with only one data item. - -The library provides primitives for storing key/data pairs, searching -and retrieving the data by its key and deleting a key along with its -data. It also support sequential iteration over all key/data pairs in a -database. - -For compatibility with programs using old UNIX dbm function, the package -also provides traditional dbm and ndbm interfaces.") + "GDBM is a library for manipulating hashed databases. It is used to +store key/value pairs in a file in a manner similar to the Unix dbm library +and provides interfaces to the traditional file format.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gettext.scm b/gnu/packages/gettext.scm index 399d96784c..07d2b0d8cb 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gettext.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gettext.scm @@ -52,20 +52,9 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/") (synopsis "Tools and documentation for translation") (description - "Usually, programs are written and documented in English, and use -English at execution time for interacting with users. Using a common -language is quite handy for communication between developers, -maintainers and users from all countries. On the other hand, most -people are less comfortable with English than with their own native -language, and would rather be using their mother tongue for day to -day's work, as far as possible. Many would simply love seeing their -computer screen showing a lot less of English, and far more of their -own language. - -GNU `gettext' is an important step for the GNU Translation Project, as -bit is an asset on which we may build many other steps. This package -offers to programmers, translators, and even users, a well integrated -set of tools and documentation. Specifically, the GNU `gettext' -utilities are a set of tools that provides a framework to help other -GNU packages produce multi-lingual messages.") + "gettext is a set of tools and documentation that provide a framework +for translating the textual output of programs into multiple languages. It +provides translators with the means to create message catalogs, as well as an +Emacs mode to work with them, and a runtime library to load translated +messages from the catalogs.") (license gpl3))) ; some files are under GPLv2+ diff --git a/gnu/packages/ghostscript.scm b/gnu/packages/ghostscript.scm index 7df1f6c17e..6d32b42043 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/ghostscript.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/ghostscript.scm @@ -165,10 +165,10 @@ printing, and psresize, for adjusting page sizes.") %standard-phases))))) (synopsis "PostScript and PDF interpreter") (description - "GNU Ghostscript is an interpreter for PostScript and Portable Document -Format (PDF) files. -It consists of a PostScript interpreter layer, and a graphics -library.") + "Ghostscript is an interpreter for the PostScript language and the PDF +file format. It also includes a C library that implements the graphics +capabilities of the PostScript language. It supports a wide variety of +output file formats and printers.") (license license:gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/ghostscript/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/global.scm b/gnu/packages/global.scm index 836962c8f8..2d4cd31bd9 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/global.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/global.scm @@ -46,12 +46,8 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/global/") (synopsis "Cross-environment source code tag system") (description - "GNU GLOBAL is a source code tagging system that works the same way -across diverse environments (Emacs, vi, less, Bash, web browser, etc). -You can locate specified objects in source files and move there easily. -It is useful for hacking a large project containing many -subdirectories, many #ifdef and many main() functions. It is similar -to ctags or etags but is different from them at the point of -independence of any editor. It runs on a UNIX (POSIX) compatible -operating system like GNU and BSD.") + "GLOBAL is a source code tagging system that functions in the same way +across a wide array of environments, such as different text editors, shells +and web browsers. The resulting tags are useful for quickly moving around in +a large, deeply nested project.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gnunet.scm b/gnu/packages/gnunet.scm index 54033851a2..86abb7b5bf 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gnunet.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gnunet.scm @@ -80,21 +80,11 @@ ("zlib" ,zlib))) (synopsis "Library to extract meta-data from media files") (description - "GNU Libextractor is a library used to extract meta data from files. -The goal is to provide developers of file-sharing networks, browsers or -WWW-indexing bots with a universal library to obtain simple keywords and -meta data to match against queries and to show to users instead of only -relying on filenames. libextractor contains the shell command extract that, -similar to the well-known file command, can extract meta data from a file -and print the results to stdout. - -Currently, libextractor supports the following formats: HTML, MAN, PS, DVI, -OLE2 (DOC, XLS, PPT), OpenOffice (sxw), StarOffice (sdw), FLAC, -MP3 (ID3v1 and ID3v2), OGG, WAV, S3M (Scream Tracker 3), XM (eXtended Module), -IT (Impulse Tracker), NSF(E) (NES music), SID (C64 music), EXIV2, JPEG, GIF, -PNG, TIFF, DEB, RPM, TAR(.GZ), LZH, LHA, RAR, ZIP, CAB, 7-ZIP, AR, MTREE, -PAX, CPIO, ISO9660, SHAR, RAW, XAR FLV, REAL, RIFF (AVI), MPEG, QT and ASF. -Also, various additional MIME types are detected.") + "GNU Libextractor is a library for extracting metadata from files. It +supports a very large number of file formats, including audio files, document +files, and archive files. Each file format is implemented as a plugin, so +new formats can be added easily. The package also containes a command-line +tool to extract metadata from a file and print the results.") (license license:gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/libextractor/"))) @@ -118,21 +108,11 @@ Also, various additional MIME types are detected.") ("zlib" ,zlib))) (synopsis "C library implementing an HTTP 1.1 server") (description - "GNU libmicrohttpd is a small C library that is supposed to make it -easy to run an HTTP server as part of another application. Key features -that distinguish GNU Libmicrohttpd from other projects are: -C library is fast and small; -API is simple, expressive and fully reentrant; -implementation is HTTP 1.1 compliant; -HTTP server can listen on multiple ports; -four different threading models (select, poll, pthread, thread pool); -supported platforms include GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Android, -OS X, W32, Symbian and z/OS; -support for IPv6; -support for SHOUTcast; -support for incremental processing of POST data (optional); -support for basic and digest authentication (optional); -support for SSL3 and TLS (requires libgcrypt and libgnutls, optional); -binary is only about 32k (without TLS/SSL support and other optional features).") + "Libmicrohttpd is a small, embeddable HTTP server implemented as a C +library. It makes it easy to run an HTTP server as part of another +application. The library is fully HTTP 1.1 compliant. It can listen on +multiple ports, supports four different threading models, and supports IPv6. + It also features security features such as basic and digest authentication +and support for SSL3 and TLS.") (license license:lgpl2.1+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/libmicrohttpd/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gnupg.scm b/gnu/packages/gnupg.scm index b3b06e4160..398650e409 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gnupg.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gnupg.scm @@ -71,11 +71,10 @@ Daemon and possibly more in the future.") (home-page "http://gnupg.org/") (synopsis "Cryptographic function library") (description - "GNU Libgcrypt is a general purpose cryptographic library based on -the code from GnuPG. It provides functions for all -cryptographic building blocks: symmetric ciphers, hash -algorithms, MACs, public key algorithms, large integer -functions, random numbers and a lot of supporting functions.") + "Libgcrypt is a general-purpose cryptographic library. It provides the +standard cryptographic building blocks such as symmetric ciphers, hash +algorithms, public key algorithms, large integer functions and random number +generation.") (license lgpl2.0+))) (define-public libassuan @@ -165,15 +164,10 @@ specifications are building blocks of S/MIME and TLS.") (home-page "http://gnupg.org/") (synopsis "GNU Privacy Guard") (description - "GnuPG is the GNU project's complete and free implementation of -the OpenPGP standard as defined by RFC4880. GnuPG allows to -encrypt and sign your data and communication, features a -versatile key managment system as well as access modules for all -kind of public key directories. GnuPG, also known as GPG, is a -command line tool with features for easy integration with other -applications. A wealth of frontend applications and libraries -are available. Version 2 of GnuPG also provides support for -S/MIME.") + "The GNU Privacy Guard is a complete implementation of the OpenPGP +standard. It is used to encrypt and sign data and communication. It +features powerful key management and the ability to access public key +servers.") (license gpl3+))) (define-public gpgme diff --git a/gnu/packages/gnutls.scm b/gnu/packages/gnutls.scm index 766731e289..ce13d81dfb 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gnutls.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gnutls.scm @@ -46,9 +46,10 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/libtasn1/") (synopsis "ASN.1 library") (description - "Libtasn1 is the ASN.1 library used by GnuTLS, GNU Shishi and some -other packages. The goal of this implementation is to be highly -portable, and only require an ANSI C89 platform.") + "Libtasn1 is a library implementing the ASN.1 notation. It is used for +transmitting machine-neutral encodings of data objects in computer +networking, allowing for formal validation of data according to some +specifications.") (license lgpl2.0+))) (define-public gnutls @@ -79,15 +80,8 @@ portable, and only require an ANSI C89 platform.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/") (synopsis "Transport layer security library") (description - "GnuTLS is a project that aims to develop a library which provides -a secure layer, over a reliable transport layer. Currently the GnuTLS -library implements the proposed standards by the IETF's TLS working -group. - -Quoting from the TLS protocol specification: - -\"The TLS protocol provides communications privacy over the -Internet. The protocol allows client/server applications to communicate -in a way that is designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, or -message forgery.\"") + "GnuTLS is a secure communications library implementing the SSL, TLS +and DTLS protocols. It is provided in the form of a C library to the +protocols, as well as to parse and write X.5009, PKCS 12, OpenPGP and other +required structures.") (license lgpl2.1+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gperf.scm b/gnu/packages/gperf.scm index 3a9d2d97d8..d9e80337d4 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gperf.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gperf.scm @@ -39,15 +39,8 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gperf/") (synopsis "Perfect hash function generator") (description - "GNU gperf is a perfect hash function generator. For a given -list of strings, it produces a hash function and hash table, in -form of C or C++ code, for looking up a value depending on the -input string. The hash function is perfect, which means that -the hash table has no collisions, and the hash table lookup -needs a single string comparison only. - -GNU gperf is highly customizable. There are options for -generating C or C++ code, for emitting switch statements or -nested ifs instead of a hash table, and for tuning the algorithm -employed by gperf.") + "gperf is a perfect hash function generator. For a given list of strings, +it produces a hash function and hash table in C or C++ code. That the hash +function is perfect means that no collisions can exist and that look-ups can be +made by single string comparisons.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gprolog.scm b/gnu/packages/gprolog.scm index f82a1a13f4..ad887cccaa 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gprolog.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gprolog.scm @@ -48,24 +48,8 @@ (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/gprolog/") (synopsis "Prolog compiler") (description - "GNU Prolog is a free Prolog compiler with constraint solving over -finite domains developed by Daniel Diaz. - -GNU Prolog accepts Prolog+constraint programs and produces native -binaries (like gcc does from a C source). The obtained executable is -then stand-alone. The size of this executable can be quite small since -GNU Prolog can avoid to link the code of most unused built-in -predicates. The performances of GNU Prolog are very -encouraging (comparable to commercial systems). - -Beside the native-code compilation, GNU Prolog offers a classical -interactive interpreter (top-level) with a debugger. - -The Prolog part conforms to the ISO standard for Prolog with many -extensions very useful in practice (e.g., global variables, OS -interface, sockets). - -GNU Prolog also includes an efficient constraint solver over finite domains. -This opens contraint logic programming to the user combining the power of -constraint programming to the declarativity of logic programming.") + "GNU Prolog is a standards-compliant Prolog compiler with constraint +solving over finite domains. It accepts Prolog+ constraint programs and +produces a compiled, native binary which can function in a stand- alone +manner. It also features an interactive interpreter.") (license (list gpl2+ lgpl3+)))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/groff.scm b/gnu/packages/groff.scm index 0bdb67f0bb..2c5510a20e 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/groff.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/groff.scm @@ -47,7 +47,8 @@ ("texinfo" ,texinfo))) (synopsis "Typesetting from plain text mixed with formatting commands") (description - "GNU Troff (Groff) is a software typesetting package which reads plain -text mixed with formatting commands and produces formatted output.") + "The groff is a typesetting package that reads plain text and produces +formatted output based on formatting commands contained within the text. It +is used particularly often in the formatting of \"man\" documentation pages.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/grub.scm b/gnu/packages/grub.scm index 7ac5822395..ba1fd8fabc 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/grub.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/grub.scm @@ -99,12 +99,10 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/") (synopsis "GRand unified boot loader") (description - "GNU GRUB is a Multiboot boot loader. It was derived from GRUB, GRand -Unified Bootloader, which was originally designed and implemented by Erich -Stefan Boleyn. - -Briefly, the boot loader is the first software program that runs when a -computer starts. It is responsible for loading and transferring control to -the operating system kernel software (such as the Hurd or the Linux). The -kernel, in turn, initializes the rest of the operating system (e.g., GNU).") + "GRUB is a multiboot bootloader. It is used for initially loading the +kernel of an operating system and then transfering control to it. The kernel +then goes on to load the rest of the operating system. As a multiboot boot +loader, GRUB handles the presence of multiple operating systems installed on +the same computer; upon booting the computer, the user is presented with a +menu to select one of the installed operating systems.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/gsasl.scm b/gnu/packages/gsasl.scm index 8b5b2b59f6..11f856f3cd 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gsasl.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gsasl.scm @@ -63,10 +63,12 @@ )) (synopsis "Generic Security Service library") (description - "GNU GSS is an implementation of the Generic Security Service Application -Program Interface (GSS-API). GSS-API is used by network servers to provide -security services, e.g., to authenticate SMTP/IMAP clients against -SMTP/IMAP servers. GSS consists of a library and a manual.") + "The GNU Generic Security Service provides a free implementation of the +GSS-API specification. It provides a generic application programming +interface for programs to access security services. Security services present +a generic, GSS interface, with which the calling application interacts via +this library, freeing the application developer from needing to know about +the underlying security implementation.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gss/"))) @@ -91,25 +93,9 @@ SMTP/IMAP servers. GSS consists of a library and a manual.") `(("gnutls" ,gnutls))) (synopsis "Simple Authentication and Security Layer library") (description - "GNU SASL is an implementation of the Simple Authentication and Security -Layer framework and a few common SASL mechanisms. SASL is used by network -servers (e.g., IMAP, SMTP) to request authentication from clients, and in -clients to authenticate against servers. - -GNU SASL consists of a library (libgsasl), a command line utility (gsasl) -to access the library from the shell, and a manual. The library includes -support for the framework (with authentication functions and application -data privacy and integrity functions) and at least partial support for the -CRAM-MD5, EXTERNAL, GSSAPI, ANONYMOUS, PLAIN, SECURID, DIGEST-MD5, -SCRAM-SHA-1, SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS, LOGIN, and NTLM mechanisms. - -The library is portable because it does not do network communication by -itself, but rather leaves it up to the calling application. The library is -flexible with regards to the authorization infrastructure used, as it -utilises callbacks into the application to decide whether an user is -authorised or not. - -The gsasl package distribution includes the library part as well, -so there is no need to install two packages.") + "GNU SASL is an implementation of the Simple Authentication and +Security Layer framework. On network servers such as IMAP or SMTP servers, +SASL is used to handle client/server authentication. This package contains +both a library and a command-line tool to access the library.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/guile.scm b/gnu/packages/guile.scm index dfad70884c..653d42c1b2 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/guile.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/guile.scm @@ -95,9 +95,11 @@ (synopsis "Scheme implementation intended especially for extensions") (description -"GNU Guile 1.8 is an interpreter for the Scheme programming language, -packaged as a library that can be embedded into programs to make them -extensible. It supports many SRFIs.") + "Guile is the GNU Ubiquitous Intelligent Language for Extensions, the +official extension language of the GNU system. It is an implementation of +the Scheme language which can be easily embedded in other applications to +provide a convenient means of extending the functionality of the application +without requiring the source code to be rewritten.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/") (license lgpl2.0+))) @@ -164,12 +166,11 @@ extensible. It supports many SRFIs.") (synopsis "Scheme implementation intended especially for extensions") (description -"GNU Guile is an implementation of the Scheme programming language, with -support for many SRFIs, packaged for use in a wide variety of environments. -In addition to implementing the R5RS Scheme standard and a large subset of -R6RS, Guile includes a module system, full access to POSIX system calls, -networking support, multiple threads, dynamic linking, a foreign function -call interface, and powerful string processing.") + "Guile is the GNU Ubiquitous Intelligent Language for Extensions, the +official extension language of the GNU system. It is an implementation of +the Scheme language which can be easily embedded in other applications to +provide a convenient means of extending the functionality of the application +without requiring the source code to be rewritten.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/") (license lgpl3+))) @@ -264,10 +265,7 @@ many readers as needed).") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/guile-ncurses/") (synopsis "Guile bindings to ncurses") (description - "GNU Guile-Ncurses is a library for the Guile Scheme interpreter that -provides functions for creating text user interfaces. The text user interface -functionality is built on the ncurses libraries: curses, form, panel, and -menu.") + "guile-ncurses provides guile bindings to the ncurses library.") (license lgpl3+))) (define-public mcron @@ -288,11 +286,10 @@ menu.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/mcron/") (synopsis "Run jobs at scheduled times") (description - "The GNU package mcron (Mellor's cron) is a 100% compatible replacement -for Vixie cron. It is written in pure Guile, and allows configuration files -to be written in scheme (as well as Vixie's original format) for infinite -flexibility in specifying when jobs should be run. Mcron was written by Dale -Mellor.") + "Mcron is a complete replacement for Vixie cron. It is used to run +tasks on a schedule, such as every hour or every Monday. Mcron is written in +Guile, so its configuration can be written in Scheme, however the original +cron format is also supported.") (license gpl3+))) (define-public guile-lib diff --git a/gnu/packages/gv.scm b/gnu/packages/gv.scm index 1fd2d50324..f573e312df 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/gv.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/gv.scm @@ -55,8 +55,8 @@ ("zlib" ,zlib))) (synopsis "PostScript and PDF viewer using Ghostscript as a back-end") (description - "GNU gv allows to view and navigate through PostScript and PDF documents -on an X display by providing a graphical user interface for the Ghostscript -interpreter.") + "GV is a graphical user interface to the Ghostscript interpreter. With +it, one can view and navigate through PostScript and PDF documents in X +Windows.") (license license:gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gv/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/help2man.scm b/gnu/packages/help2man.scm index 021677593c..6644370b71 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/help2man.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/help2man.scm @@ -47,6 +47,6 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/") (synopsis "Automatically generate man pages from program --help") (description - "help2man produces simple manual pages from the ‘--help’ and -‘--version’ output of other commands.") + "help2man is a program that converts the output of standard \"--help\" +and \"--version\" command-line arguments into a manual page automatically.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/idutils.scm b/gnu/packages/idutils.scm index 16ccd48854..11dd6ea4d4 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/idutils.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/idutils.scm @@ -43,22 +43,9 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/idutils/") (synopsis "Identifier database utilities") (description - "An \"ID database\" is a binary file containing a list of file -names, a list of tokens, and a sparse matrix indicating which -tokens appear in which files. - -With this database and some tools to query it, many -text-searching tasks become simpler and faster. For example, -you can list all files that reference a particular `\\#include' -file throughout a huge source hierarchy, search for all the -memos containing references to a project, or automatically -invoke an editor on all files containing references to some -function or variable. Anyone with a large software project to -maintain, or a large set of text files to organize, can benefit -from the ID utilities. - -Although the name `ID' is short for `identifier', the ID -utilities handle more than just identifiers; they also treat -other kinds of tokens, most notably numeric constants, and the -contents of certain character strings.") + "ID Utils provides tools to create an index if textual tokens used in a +list of file names and to then query that index. Thus, it allows the user +to, for example, find all the uses of a particular function in all files of a +large programming project. In addition to handling textual tokens, it can +also handle numeric constants and the contents of character strings.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/indent.scm b/gnu/packages/indent.scm index 3ae1c9e94a..4a5d52b89f 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/indent.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/indent.scm @@ -37,9 +37,9 @@ (build-system gnu-build-system) (synopsis "Code reformatter") (description - "GNU Indent can be used to make code easier to read. It can also convert -from one style of writing C to another. Indent understands a substantial -amount about the syntax of C, but it also attempts to cope with incomplete -and misformed syntax. The GNU style of indenting is the default.") + "Indent is a program that makes source code easier to read by +reformatting it in a consistetn style. It can change the style to one of +several different styles such as GNU, BSD or K&R. It has some flexibility to +deal with incomplete or malformed syntax.") (license license:gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/indent/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/less.scm b/gnu/packages/less.scm index ced14704ff..a1914b6953 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/less.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/less.scm @@ -40,10 +40,9 @@ (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/less/") (synopsis "Paginator for terminals") (description - "GNU less is a program similar to more, but which allows backward -movement in the file as well as forward movement. Also, less does not -have to read the entire input file before starting, so with large input -files it starts up faster than text editors like vi. Less uses -termcap (or terminfo on some systems), so it can run on a variety of -terminals. There is even limited support for hardcopy terminals.") + "GNU less is a pager, a program that allows you to view large amounts +of text in page-sized chunks. Unlike traditional pagers, it allows both +backwards and forwards movement through the document. It also does not have +to read the entire input file before starting, so it starts faster than most +text editors.") (license gpl3+))) ; some files are under GPLv2+ diff --git a/gnu/packages/libidn.scm b/gnu/packages/libidn.scm index 786b3a2e3a..954b30a972 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/libidn.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/libidn.scm @@ -37,15 +37,8 @@ ;; FIXME: No Java and C# libraries are currently built. (synopsis "Internationalized string processing library") (description - "GNU Libidn is a fully documented implementation of the Stringprep, -Punycode and IDNA specifications. Libidn's purpose is to encode and decode -internationalised domain names. - -The library contains a generic Stringprep implementation. Profiles for -Nameprep, iSCSI, SASL, XMPP and Kerberos V5 are included. Punycode and -ASCII Compatible Encoding (ACE) via IDNA are supported. A mechanism to -define Top-Level Domain (TLD) specific validation tables, and to compare -strings against those tables, is included. -Default tables for some TLDs are also included.") + "The GNU IDN Libary is an implementation of the Stringprep, Punycode +and IDNA specifications. These are used to encode and decode +internationalized domain names. It includes native C, C# and Java libraries.") (license lgpl2.1+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/libsigsegv.scm b/gnu/packages/libsigsegv.scm index 62fb40737a..818908890e 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/libsigsegv.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/libsigsegv.scm @@ -52,10 +52,8 @@ %standard-phases)) '())) (description -"GNU libsigsegv is a library for handling page faults in user mode. A page -fault occurs when a program tries to access to a region of memory that is -currently not available. Catching and handling a page fault is a useful -technique for implementing pageable virtual memory, memory-mapped access to -persistent databases, generational garbage collectors, stack overflow -handlers, distributed shared memory, and more.") + "libsigsegv is a library to handle page faults, which occur when a +program tries to access an unavailable region of memory, in user mode. By +catching and handling page faults, the program can implement pageable virtual +memory, stack overflow handlers, and so on.") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/libunistring.scm b/gnu/packages/libunistring.scm index 2dbfee70f1..96d0922a7b 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/libunistring.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/libunistring.scm @@ -38,20 +38,7 @@ (build-system gnu-build-system) (synopsis "C library for manipulating Unicode strings") (description - "This library provides functions for manipulating Unicode strings and for -manipulating C strings according to the Unicode standard. - -GNU libunistring is for you if your application involves non-trivial text -processing, such as upper/lower case conversions, line breaking, operations -on words, or more advanced analysis of text. Text provided by the user can, -in general, contain characters of all kinds of scripts. The text processing -functions provided by this library handle all scripts and all languages. - -libunistring is for you if your application already uses the ISO C / POSIX -<ctype.h>, <wctype.h> functions and the text it operates on is provided by -the user and can be in any language. - -libunistring is also for you if your application uses Unicode strings as -internal in-memory representation.") + "Libunistring is a library providing functions to manipulate Unicode +strings and for manipulating C strings according to the Unicode standard.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/") (license lgpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/lightning.scm b/gnu/packages/lightning.scm index 05cc447eec..03255e0617 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/lightning.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/lightning.scm @@ -36,9 +36,9 @@ (build-system gnu-build-system) (synopsis "Library for generating assembly code at runtime") (description - "GNU lightning is a library that generates assembly language code at -run-time; it is very fast, making it ideal for Just-In-Time compilers, and it -abstracts over the target CPU, as it exposes to the clients a standardized -RISC instruction set inspired by the MIPS and SPARC chips.") + "GNU Lightning is a library that generates assembly language code at +run-time. Thus, it is useful in creating Just-In-Time compilers. It +abstracts over the target CPU by exposing a standardized RISC instruction set +to the clients.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/linux.scm b/gnu/packages/linux.scm index 2481fc3628..b53c02e1dc 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/linux.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/linux.scm @@ -207,7 +207,9 @@ (alist-delete 'configure %standard-phases))) #:tests? #f)) (synopsis "100% free redistribution of a cleaned Linux kernel") - (description "Linux-Libre operating system kernel.") + (description + "Linux Libre is a free (as in freedom) variant of the Linux kernel. It +has been modified to remove any non-free binary blobs.") (license gpl2) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/")))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/lsh.scm b/gnu/packages/lsh.scm index b8c155453f..58040839e1 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/lsh.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/lsh.scm @@ -119,7 +119,9 @@ basis for almost any application.") (home-page "http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nisse/lsh/") (synopsis "GNU implementation of the Secure Shell (ssh) protocols") (description - "lsh is a free implementation (in the GNU sense) of the ssh -version 2 protocol, currently being standardised by the IETF -SECSH working group.") + "lsh is a free implementation of the SSH version 2 protocol. It is +used to create a secure line of communication between two computers, +providing shell access to the server system from the client. It provides +both the server daemon and the client application, as well as tools for +manipulating key files.") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/m4.scm b/gnu/packages/m4.scm index 17ca7c8440..f341b246a2 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/m4.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/m4.scm @@ -59,18 +59,10 @@ ,(search-patch "m4-readlink-EINVAL.patch")))) (synopsis "Macro processor") (description - "GNU M4 is an implementation of the traditional Unix macro processor. It -is mostly SVR4 compatible although it has some extensions (for example, -handling more than 9 positional parameters to macros). GNU M4 also has -built-in functions for including files, running shell commands, doing -arithmetic, etc. - -GNU M4 is a macro processor in the sense that it copies its input to the -output expanding macros as it goes. Macros are either builtin or -user-defined and can take any number of arguments. Besides just doing macro -expansion, m4 has builtin functions for including named files, running UNIX -commands, doing integer arithmetic, manipulating text in various ways, -recursion etc... m4 can be used either as a front-end to a compiler or as a -macro processor in its own right.") + "GNU M4 is an implementation of the M4 macro language, which features +some extensions over other implementations. It is used as a macro processor, +which means it processes text, expanding macros as it encounters them. It +also has some built-in functionns, for example to run shell commands or to do +arithmetic.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/mail.scm b/gnu/packages/mail.scm index ce41b087e8..d355d1e72c 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/mail.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/mail.scm @@ -86,23 +86,11 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils/") (synopsis "Utilities and library for reading and serving mail") (description - "GNU Mailutils is a rich and powerful protocol-independent mail -framework. It contains a series of useful mail libraries, clients, and -servers. These are the primary mail utilities for the GNU system. The -central library is capable of handling electronic mail in various -mailbox formats and protocols, both local and remote. Specifically, -this project contains a POP3 server, an IMAP4 server, and a Sieve mail -filter. It also provides a POSIX `mailx' client, and a collection of -other handy tools. - -The GNU Mailutils libraries supply an ample set of primitives for -handling electronic mail in programs written in C, C++, Python or -Scheme. - -The utilities provided by Mailutils include imap4d and pop3d mail -servers, mail reporting utility comsatd, general-purpose mail delivery -agent maidag, mail filtering program sieve, and an implementation of MH -message handling system.") + "Mailutils is a \"swiss army knife of electronic mail handling.\" It is +a suite of programs for managing, viewing and processing e-mail. It contains +both utilities and server daemons and all operate in a protocol-agnostic way. + The underlying libraries are also made available, making adding mail +capabilities to new software simple.") (license ;; Libraries are under LGPLv3+, and programs under GPLv3+. (list gpl3+ lgpl3+)))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/maths.scm b/gnu/packages/maths.scm index 0392096563..4ff7143f86 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/maths.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/maths.scm @@ -44,25 +44,11 @@ (build-system gnu-build-system) (synopsis "Conversion between thousands of scales") (description - "GNU Units converts quantities expressed in various systems of -measurement to their equivalents in other systems of measurement. Like -many similar programs, it can handle multiplicative scale changes. It can -also handle nonlinear conversions such as Fahrenheit to Celsius or wire -gauge, and it can convert from and to sums of units, such as converting -between meters and feet plus inches. - -Beyond simple unit conversions, GNU Units can be used as a general-purpose -scientific calculator that keeps track of units in its calculations. You -can form arbitrary complex mathematical expressions of dimensions including -sums, products, quotients, powers, and even roots of dimensions. Thus you -can ensure accuracy and dimensional consistency when working with long -expressions that involve many different units that may combine in complex -ways. - -The units are defined in an external data file. You can use the extensive -data file that comes with this program, or you can provide your own data -file to suit your needs. You can also use your own data file to supplement -the standard data file.") + "Units is a program for converting measured quantities between units of +measure. It can handle scale changes through adaptive usage of standard +scale prefixes (i.e. micro-, kilo-, etc.). It can also handle nonlinear +conversions such as Fahrenheit to Celcius. Its interpreter is powerful +enough to be used effectively as a scientific calculator.") (license license:gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/units/"))) @@ -95,14 +81,11 @@ the standard data file.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/") (synopsis "Numerical library for C and C++") (description - "The GNU Scientific Library (GSL) is a numerical library for C -and C++ programmers. It is free software under the GNU General -Public License. - -The library provides a wide range of mathematical routines such -as random number generators, special functions and least-squares -fitting. There are over 1000 functions in total with an -extensive test suite.") + "The GNU Scientific Library is a library for numerical analysis in C +and C++. It includes a wide range of mathematical routines, with over 1000 +functions in total. Subject areas covered by the library include: +differential equations, linear algebra, Fast Fourier Transforms and random +numbers.") (license license:gpl3+))) (define-public pspp @@ -134,13 +117,10 @@ extensive test suite.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/") (synopsis "Statistical analysis") (description - "PSPP is a program for statistical analysis of sampled data. It is a -free replacement for the proprietary program SPSS, and appears very similar -to it. - -PSPP can perform descriptive statistics, T-tests, anova, linear and logistic -regression, cluster analysis, factor analysis, non-parametric tests and -more. Its backend is designed to perform its analyses as fast as possible, -regardless of the size of the input data. You can use PSPP with its -graphical interface or the more traditional syntax commands.") + "PSPP is a statistical analysis program. It can perform descriptive +statistics, T-tests, linear regression and non-parametric tests. It features +both a graphical interface as well as command-line input. PSPP is designed to +interoperate with Gnumeric, LibreOffice and OpenOffice. Data can be imported +from spreadsheets, text files and database sources and it can be output in +text, Postscript, PDF or HTML.") (license license:gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/multiprecision.scm b/gnu/packages/multiprecision.scm index 16383d1ec1..6692d26b59 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/multiprecision.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/multiprecision.scm @@ -46,25 +46,11 @@ "--enable-cxx"))) (synopsis "Multiple-precision arithmetic library") (description - "GMP is a free library for arbitrary precision arithmetic, operating on -signed integers, rational numbers, and floating point numbers. There is no -practical limit to the precision except the ones implied by the available -memory in the machine GMP runs on. GMP has a rich set of functions, and the -functions have a regular interface. - -The main target applications for GMP are cryptography applications and -research, Internet security applications, algebra systems, computational -algebra research, etc. - -GMP is carefully designed to be as fast as possible, both for small operands -and for huge operands. The speed is achieved by using fullwords as the basic -arithmetic type, by using fast algorithms, with highly optimised assembly -code for the most common inner loops for a lot of CPUs, and by a general -emphasis on speed. - -GMP is faster than any other bignum library. The advantage for GMP increases -with the operand sizes for many operations, since GMP uses asymptotically -faster algorithms.") + "GMP is a library for arbitrary precision arithmetic, operating on +signed integers, rational numbers and floating point numbers. The precision +is only limited by the available memory. The library is highly optimized, +with a design focus on execution speed. It is aimed at use in, for example, +cryptography and computational algebra.") (license lgpl3+) (home-page "http://gmplib.org/"))) @@ -83,14 +69,8 @@ faster algorithms.") (propagated-inputs `(("gmp" ,gmp))) ; <mpfr.h> refers to <gmp.h> (synopsis "C library for arbitrary precision floating-point arithmetic") (description - "The GNU MPFR library is a C library for multiple-precision -floating-point computations with correct rounding. MPFR is based on the GMP -multiple-precision library. - -The main goal of MPFR is to provide a library for multiple-precision -floating-point computation which is both efficient and has a well-defined -semantics. It copies the good ideas from the ANSI/IEEE-754 standard for -double-precision floating-point arithmetic (53-bit mantissa).") + "MPFR is a C library for performing multiple-precision, floating-point +computations with correct rounding.") (license lgpl3+) (home-page "http://www.mpfr.org/"))) @@ -110,12 +90,7 @@ double-precision floating-point arithmetic (53-bit mantissa).") ("mpfr" ,mpfr))) (synopsis "C library for arbitrary precision complex arithmetic") (description - "GNU MPC is a C library for the arithmetic of complex numbers with -arbitrarily high precision and correct rounding of the result. It extends -the principles of the IEEE-754 standard for fixed precision real floating -point numbers to complex numbers, providing well-defined semantics for -every operation. At the same time, speed of operation at high precision -is a major design goal. The library is built upon and follows the same -principles as GNU MPFR.") + "GNU MPC is a C library for performing arithmetic on complex numbers. +It supports arbitrarily high precision and it correctly rounds the results.") (license lgpl3+) (home-page "http://mpc.multiprecision.org/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/nano.scm b/gnu/packages/nano.scm index 6ded15df2a..c936ca552c 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/nano.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/nano.scm @@ -44,8 +44,7 @@ (home-page "http://www.nano-editor.org/") (synopsis "Small, user-friendly console text editor") (description - "GNU nano is designed to be a free replacement for the Pico text -editor, part of the Pine email suite from The University of -Washington. It aims to emulate Pico as closely as possible and perhaps -include extra functionality.") + "nano is a small and simple text editor. In addition to basic +editing, it supports interactive search and replace, go to line and column +number, auto-indentation and more.") (license gpl3+))) ; some files are under GPLv2+ diff --git a/gnu/packages/ncurses.scm b/gnu/packages/ncurses.scm index e5a9bce0f1..c6dd98a801 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/ncurses.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/ncurses.scm @@ -130,14 +130,9 @@ (self-native-input? #t) ; for `tic' (synopsis "Terminal emulation (termcap, terminfo) library") (description - "The Ncurses (new curses) library is a free software emulation of curses -in System V Release 4.0, and more. It uses Terminfo format, supports pads -and color and multiple highlights and forms characters and function-key -mapping, and has all the other SYSV-curses enhancements over BSD Curses. - -The ncurses code was developed under GNU/Linux. It has been in use for some -time with OpenBSD as the system curses library, and on FreeBSD and NetBSD as -an external package. It should port easily to any ANSI/POSIX-conforming -UNIX. It has even been ported to OS/2 Warp!") + "Ncurses is a library which provides capabilities to write text to a +terminal in a terminal-independent manner. It supports pads and color as +well as multiple highlights and forms characters. It is typically used to +implement user interfaces for command-line applications.") (license x11) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/")))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/nettle.scm b/gnu/packages/nettle.scm index b8ba9bf04a..f93c914996 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/nettle.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/nettle.scm @@ -41,20 +41,7 @@ (home-page "http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nisse/nettle/") (synopsis "C library for low-level crytographic functionality") (description - "Nettle is a cryptographic library that is designed to fit easily -in more or less any context: In crypto toolkits for object-oriented -languages (C++, Python, Pike, ...), in applications like LSH or GNUPG, -or even in kernel space. In most contexts, you need more than the basic -cryptographic algorithms, you also need some way to keep track of -available algorithms, their properties and variants. You often have -some algorithm selection process, often dictated by a protocol you want -to implement. - -And as the requirements of applications differ in subtle and not so -subtle ways, an API that fits one application well can be a pain to use -in a different context. And that is why there are so many different -cryptographic libraries around. \nNettle tries to avoid this problem by -doing one thing, the low-level crypto stuff, and providing a simple but -general interface to it. In particular, Nettle doesn't do algorithm -selection. It doesn't do memory allocation. It doesn't do any I/O.") + "Nettle is a low-level cryptographic library. It is designed to fit in +easily in almost any context. It can be easily included in cryptographic +toolkits for object-oriented languages or in applications themselves.") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/ocrad.scm b/gnu/packages/ocrad.scm index f6bc112a8c..d1b56791d8 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/ocrad.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/ocrad.scm @@ -40,14 +40,7 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/ocrad/") (synopsis "Optical character recognition based on feature extraction") (description - "GNU Ocrad is an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program based on a -feature extraction method. It reads images in pbm (bitmap), pgm - (greyscale) or ppm (color) formats and produces text in byte (8-bit) -or UTF-8 formats. - -Also includes a layout analyser able to separate the columns or blocks of text -normally found on printed pages. - -Ocrad can be used as a stand-alone console application, or as a backend to -other programs.") + "Ocrad is an optical character recognition program based on a feature +extraction method. It can read images in PBM, PGM or PPM formats and it +produces text in 8-bit or UTF-8 formats.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/oggvorbis.scm b/gnu/packages/oggvorbis.scm index cd9e60862e..0652ec3bed 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/oggvorbis.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/oggvorbis.scm @@ -105,10 +105,10 @@ polyphonic) audio and music at fixed and variable bitrates from 16 to (home-page "https://gnu.org/software/speex") (synopsis "Library for patent-free audio compression format") (description - "GNU Speex is a patent-free voice codec. It is designed to -compress voice at bitrates in the 2--45 kbps range. Possible -applications include VoIP, internet audio streaming, archiving of speech -data (e.g., voice mail), and audio books.") + "Speex is a patent-free audio compression codec specially designed for +speech. It is well-adapted to internet applications, such as VoIP. It +features compression of different bands in the same bitstream, intensity +stereo encoding, and voice activity detection.") ;; 'src/getopt.c' is under LGPLv2+ (license (license:bsd-style "file://COPYING" "See COPYING in the distribution.")))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/parted.scm b/gnu/packages/parted.scm index 1f266c9035..9d835d6b6c 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/parted.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/parted.scm @@ -60,11 +60,6 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/") (synopsis "Disk partition editor") (description - "GNU Parted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, -resizing, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them. This -is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganising disk -usage, copying data on hard disks and disk imaging. - -It contains a library, libparted, and a command-line frontend, parted, which -also serves as a sample implementation and script backend.") + "Parted is a tool for creating and manipulating disk partition tables. +It consists of a library and a command-line tool for performing these tasks.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/plotutils.scm b/gnu/packages/plotutils.scm index 0b12665a61..090d07c39b 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/plotutils.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/plotutils.scm @@ -46,15 +46,9 @@ "http://www.gnu.org/software/plotutils/") (synopsis "Plotting utilities and library") (description - "The GNU plotutils package contains software for both programmers and -technical users. Its centerpiece is libplot, a powerful C/C++ function -library for exporting 2-D vector graphics in many file formats, both vector -and raster. It can also do vector graphics animations. - -libplot is device-independent in the sense that its API (application -programming interface) does not depend on the type of graphics file to be -exported. - -Besides libplot, the package contains command-line programs for plotting -scientific data. Many of them use libplot to export graphics.") + "Plotutils is a collection of utilities for plotting and working with +2D graphics. It includes a library, libplot, for C and C++ for exporting 2D +vector graphics in many file formats. It also has support for 2D vector +graphics animations. The package also contains command-line programs for +plotting scientific data.") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/pth.scm b/gnu/packages/pth.scm index c3f572574e..e7068a5240 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/pth.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/pth.scm @@ -39,23 +39,11 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/pth") (synopsis "Portable thread library") (description - "Pth is a very portable POSIX/ANSI-C based library for Unix -platforms which provides non-preemptive priority-based scheduling for -multiple threads of execution (aka ``multithreading'') inside -event-driven applications. All threads run in the same address space of -the server application, but each thread has it's own individual -program-counter, run-time stack, signal mask and errno variable. - -The thread scheduling itself is done in a cooperative way, i.e., the -threads are managed by a priority- and event-based non-preemptive -scheduler. The intention is that this way one can achieve better -portability and run-time performance than with preemptive -scheduling. The event facility allows threads to wait until various -types of events occur, including pending I/O on file descriptors, -asynchronous signals, elapsed timers, pending I/O on message ports, -thread and process termination, and even customized callback functions. - -Additionally Pth provides an optional emulation API for POSIX.1c -threads (\"Pthreads\") which can be used for backward compatibility to -existing multithreaded applications.") + "Pth is a portable library providing non-preemptive, priority-based +scheduling for multiple execution threads. Each thread has its own +program-counter, run-time stack, signal mask and errno variable. Threads are +scheduled in a cooperative way, rather than in the standard preemptive way, +such that they are managed according to priority and events. However, Pth +also features emulation of POSIX.1c threads (\"Pthreads\") for backwards +compatibility.") (license lgpl2.1+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/readline.scm b/gnu/packages/readline.scm index 8857666fcc..1fbbd69d7e 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/readline.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/readline.scm @@ -64,15 +64,10 @@ %standard-phases))) (synopsis "Edit command lines while typing, with history support") (description - "The GNU Readline library provides a set of functions for use by -applications that allow users to edit command lines as they are typed in. -Both Emacs and vi editing modes are available. The Readline library includes -additional functions to maintain a list of previously-entered command lines, -to recall and perhaps reedit those lines, and perform csh-like history -expansion on previous commands. - -The history facilites are also placed into a separate library, the History -library, as part of the build process. The History library may be used -without Readline in applications which desire its capabilities.") + "Readline is a libary that allows users to edit command lines as they +are typed in. It can maintain a searchable history of previously entered +commands, letting you easily recall, edit and re-enter past commands. It +features both Emacs-like and vi-like keybindings, making its usage +comfortable for anyone.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/readline/")))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/recutils.scm b/gnu/packages/recutils.scm index 2182d7385c..f9c15d332c 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/recutils.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/recutils.scm @@ -47,8 +47,10 @@ ("bc" ,bc))) (synopsis "Manipulate plain text files as databases") (description - "GNU recutils is a set of tools and libraries to access human-editable, -text-based databases called recfiles. The data is stored as a sequence of -records, each record containing an arbitrary number of named fields.") + "Recutils is a set of tools and libraries for creating and +manipulating text-based, human-editable databases. Despite being text-based, +databases created with Recutils carry all of the expected features such as +unique fields, primary keys, time stamps and more. Many different field types +are supported, as is encryption.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/recutils/"))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/rush.scm b/gnu/packages/rush.scm index 20f0e5cae7..f14e2f7202 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/rush.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/rush.scm @@ -41,13 +41,8 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/rush/") (synopsis "Restricted user (login) shell") (description - "GNU Rush is a Restricted User Shell, designed for sites providing -limited remote access to their resources, such as svn or git repositories, -scp, or the like. Using a sophisticated configuration file, Rush gives you -complete control over the command lines that users execute, as well as over -the usage of system resources, such as virtual memory, CPU time, etc. - -In particular, it allows remote programs to be run in a chrooted environment, -which is important with such programs as sftp-server or scp, that lack this -ability.") + "Rush is a restricted user shell, for systems on which users are to be +provided with only limited functionality or resources. Administrators set +user rights via a configuration file which can be used to limit, for example, +the commands that can be executed, CPU time, or virtual memory usage.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/scheme.scm b/gnu/packages/scheme.scm index 122262487b..9a12cb6fdd 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/scheme.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/scheme.scm @@ -109,10 +109,8 @@ (synopsis "Scheme implementation with integrated editor and debugger") (description "MIT/GNU Scheme is an implementation of the Scheme programming -language, providing an interpreter, compiler, source-code debugger, -integrated Emacs-like editor, and a large runtime library. MIT/GNU -Scheme is best suited to programming large applications with a rapid -development cycle.") +language. It provides an interpreter, a compiler and a debugger. It also +features an integrated Emacs-like editor and a large runtime library.") (license gpl2+))) (define-public bigloo diff --git a/gnu/packages/screen.scm b/gnu/packages/screen.scm index 5bace12070..8fa24e45f2 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/screen.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/screen.scm @@ -42,20 +42,10 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/") (synopsis "Full-screen window manager providing multiple terminals") (description - "GNU screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical -terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells. Each virtual -terminal provides the functions of the DEC VT100 terminal and, in addition, -several control functions from the ANSI X3.64 (ISO 6429) and ISO 2022 standards -(e.g., insert/delete line and support for multiple character sets). There is a -scrollback history buffer for each virtual terminal and a copy-and-paste -mechanism that allows the user to move text regions between windows. When -screen is called, it creates a single window with a shell in it (or the -specified command) and then gets out of your way so that you can use the -program as you normally would. Then, at any time, you can create new -(full-screen) windows with other programs in them (including more shells), kill -the current window, view a list of the active windows, turn output logging on -and off, copy text between windows, view the scrollback history, switch between -windows, etc. All windows run their programs completely independent of each -other. Programs continue to run when their window is currently not visible and -even when the whole screen session is detached from the users terminal.") + "Screen is a terminal window manager that multiplexes a single terminal +between several processes. The virtual terminals each provide features such +as a scroll-back buffer and a copy-and-paste mechanism. Screen then manages +the different virtual terminals, allowing you to easily switch between them, +to detach them from the current session, or even splitting the view to show +two terminals at once.") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/shishi.scm b/gnu/packages/shishi.scm index 0a49f47ded..632791de1a 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/shishi.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/shishi.scm @@ -48,9 +48,7 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/shishi/") (synopsis "Implementation of the Kerberos 5 network security system") (description - "Shishi contains a library ('libshishi') that can be used by application -developers to add support for Kerberos 5. Shishi contains a command line -utility ('shishi') that is used by users to acquire and manage tickets (and -more). The server side, a Key Distribution Center (KDC), is implemented by -'shishid', and support X.509 authenticated TLS via GnuTLS.") + "Shishi is a free implementation of the Kerberos 5 network security +system. It is used to allow non-secure network nodes to communicate in a +secure manner through client-server mutual authentication via tickets.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/smalltalk.scm b/gnu/packages/smalltalk.scm index 976e526a7b..c9d733d505 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/smalltalk.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/smalltalk.scm @@ -49,13 +49,7 @@ (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/smalltalk/") (synopsis "Smalltalk environment") (description - "GNU Smalltalk is a free implementation of the Smalltalk-80 language. - -In the Smalltalk language, everything is an object. This includes numbers, -executable procedures (methods), stack frames (called method contexts or block -contexts), etc. Each object is an \"instance\" of a \"class\". A class can -be thought of as a datatype and the set of functions that operate on that -datatype. An instance is a particular variable of that datatype. When you -want to perform an operation on an object, you send it a \"message\", and the -object performs an operation that corresponds to that message.") + "GNU Smalltalk is a free implementation of the Smalltalk language. It +implements the ANSI standard for the language and also includes extra classes +such as ones for networking and GUI programming.") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/system.scm b/gnu/packages/system.scm index 6f710fd4d4..a5d2e67585 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/system.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/system.scm @@ -51,13 +51,11 @@ (inputs `(("pkg-config" ,pkg-config) ("guile" ,guile-2.0))) (synopsis "Daemon managing daemons") - (description "'DMD' is a \"Daemon managing Daemons\" (or -\"Daemons-managing Daemon\"?)---i.e. a service manager that provides a -replacement for the service-managing capabilities of SysV-init (or any other -init) with a both powerful and beautiful dependency-based system with a -convenient interface. It is intended for use on GNU/Hurd, but it is supposed -to work on every POSIX-like system where Guile is available. In particular, -it has been tested on GNU/Linux.") + (description + "DMD is a \"daemon-managing daemon,\" meaning it manages the execution of +system services, replacing similar functionality found in typical init +systems. It provides dependency-handling through a convenient interface and +is based on GNU Guile.") (license gpl3+) (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/dmd/"))) @@ -120,23 +118,10 @@ application (for console or X terminals) and requires ncurses.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/pies/") (synopsis "Program invocation and execution supervisor") (description - "The name Pies (pronounced \"p-yes\") stands for Program Invocation -and Execution Supervisor. This utility starts and controls execution of -external programs, called components. Each component is a stand-alone -program, which is executed in the foreground. Upon startup, pies reads -the list of components from its configuration file, starts them, and -remains in the background, controlling their execution. If any of the -components terminates, the default action of Pies is to restart it. -However, it can also be programmed to perform a variety of another -actions such as, e.g., sending mail notifications to the system -administrator, invoking another external program, etc. - -Pies can be used for a wide variety of tasks. Its most obious use is to -put in backgound a program which normally cannot detach itself from the -controlling terminal, such as, e.g., minicom. It can launch and control -components of some complex system, such as Jabberd or MeTA1 (and it -offers much more control over them than the native utilities). Finally, -it can replace the inetd utility!") + "Pies is a program that supervises the invocation and executiton of +other programs. It reads the list of programs to be started from its +configuration file, executes them, and then monitors their status, +re-executing them as necessary.") (license gpl3+))) (define-public inetutils @@ -160,10 +145,8 @@ it can replace the inetd utility!") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/") (synopsis "Basic networking utilities") (description - "The GNU network utilities suite provides the following tools: -ftp(d), hostname, ifconfig, inetd, logger, ping, rcp, rexec(d), -rlogin(d), rsh(d), syslogd, talk(d), telnet(d), tftp(d), traceroute, -uucpd, and whois.") + "Inetutils is a collection of common network programs, such as an ftp +client and server, a telnet client and server, and an rsh client and server.") (license gpl3+))) (define-public shadow diff --git a/gnu/packages/texinfo.scm b/gnu/packages/texinfo.scm index 8191bfd64a..dc41cc4330 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/texinfo.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/texinfo.scm @@ -43,17 +43,9 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/") (synopsis "The GNU documentation format") (description - "Texinfo is the official documentation format of the GNU project. -It was invented by Richard Stallman and Bob Chassell many years -ago, loosely based on Brian Reid's Scribe and other formatting -languages of the time. It is used by many non-GNU projects as -well. - -Texinfo uses a single source file to produce output in a number -of formats, both online and printed (dvi, html, info, pdf, xml, -etc.). This means that instead of writing different documents -for online information and another for a printed manual, you -need write only one document. And when the work is revised, you -need revise only that one document. The Texinfo system is -well-integrated with GNU Emacs.") + "Texinfo is the official documentation format of the GNU project. It +uses a single source file containing TeX-like formatting commands to produce +a final document in any of several supported output formats, such as HTML or +PDF. This package includes both the tools necessary to produce info +documents from their source as well as the command- line info reader.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/time.scm b/gnu/packages/time.scm index 8d55905eec..695ca0a2b3 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/time.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/time.scm @@ -51,14 +51,7 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/time/") (synopsis "Run a command, then display its resource usage") (description - "The 'time' command runs another program, then displays information -about the resources used by that program, collected by the system while -the program was running. You can select which information is reported -and the format in which it is shown, or have 'time' save the information -in a file instead of displaying it on the screen. - -The resources that 'time' can report on fall into the general categories -of time, memory, and I/O and IPC calls. Some systems do not provide -much information about program resource use; 'time' reports unavailable -information as zero values.") + "Time is a command that displays information about the resources that a +program uses. The display output of the program can be customized or saved +to a file.") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/unrtf.scm b/gnu/packages/unrtf.scm index 707543612b..c98a1d7b6c 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/unrtf.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/unrtf.scm @@ -49,9 +49,7 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/unrtf") (synopsis "Convert Rich Text Format documents to other formats") (description - "UnRTF is a command-line program written in C which converts documents in -Rich Text Format (.rtf) to HTML, LaTeX, troff macros, and RTF -itself. Converting to HTML, it supports a number of features of Rich Text -Format, such as changes to the text's font, underlines, text shadowing and -outlining, and more.") + "UnRTF is a program for converting text documents from RTF to HTML, +LaTeX, or troff macros. It supports changes in font characteristics, +underlines and strikethroughs, superscripts and subscripts, and more.") (license gpl2+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/version-control.scm b/gnu/packages/version-control.scm index 04a6ae2a57..30660e830f 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/version-control.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/version-control.scm @@ -248,11 +248,9 @@ projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/") (synopsis "Per-file local revision control system") (description - "The GNU Revision Control System (RCS) manages multiple revisions of -files. RCS automates the storing, retrieval, logging, identification, and -merging of revisions. RCS is useful for text that is revised frequently, -including source code, programs, documentation, graphics, papers, and form -letters.") + "RCS is the Revision Control System. It is used to manage multiple +revisions of files. Revisions are stored as reverse differences generated by +GNU Diffutils. RCS also handles identifying and merging revisions.") (license gpl3+))) (define-public cvs @@ -300,6 +298,10 @@ RCS, PRCS, and Aegis packages.") (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/vc-dwim/") (synopsis "Version-control-agnostic ChangeLog diff and commit tool") (description - "vc-dwim is a version-control-agnostic ChangeLog diff and commit -tool. vc-chlog is a helper tool for writing GNU-style ChangeLog entries.") + "The vc-dwim package contains two tools, \"vc-dwim\" and \"vc-chlog\". +vc-dwim is a tool that simplifies the task of maintaining a ChangeLog and +using version control at the same time, for example by printing a reminder +when a file change has been described in the ChangeLog but the file has not +been added to the VCS. vc-chlog scans changed files and generates +standards-compliant ChangeLog entries based on the changes that it detects.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/wdiff.scm b/gnu/packages/wdiff.scm index 6aa6b2a67a..1819977d28 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/wdiff.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/wdiff.scm @@ -54,11 +54,7 @@ (home-page "https://www.gnu.org/software/wdiff/") (synopsis "Word difference finder") (description - "GNU Wdiff is a front end to 'diff' for comparing files on a word per -word basis. A word is anything between whitespace. This is useful for -comparing two texts in which a few words have been changed and for which -paragraphs have been refilled. It works by creating two temporary files, one -word per line, and then executes 'diff' on these files. It collects the -'diff' output and uses it to produce a nicer display of word differences -between the original files.") + "Wdiff is a front-end to the diff program from Diffutils that allows +you to compare files on a word-by-word basis, where a word is anything +between whitespace.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/wget.scm b/gnu/packages/wget.scm index 4daa2d8a87..ab7170a73c 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/wget.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/wget.scm @@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/") (synopsis "Non-interactive command-line utility for downloading files") (description - "GNU Wget is a free software package for retrieving files using HTTP, -HTTPS and FTP, the most widely-used Internet protocols. It is a -non-interactive commandline tool, so it may easily be called from -scripts, cron jobs, terminals without X-Windows support, etc.") + "Wget is a non-interactive tool for fetching files using the HTTP, +HTTPS and FTP protocols. It can resume interrupted downloads, use filename +wild cards, supports proxies and cookies, and it can convert absolute links +in downloaded documents to relative links.") (license gpl3+))) ; some files are under GPLv2+ diff --git a/gnu/packages/which.scm b/gnu/packages/which.scm index 27d8094b00..65a4dd79f3 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/which.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/which.scm @@ -38,10 +38,6 @@ (home-page "https://gnu.org/software/which/") (synopsis "Find full path of shell commands") (description - "GNU Which takes one or more arguments. For each of its arguments -it prints to stdout the full path of the executables that would have -been executed when this argument had been entered at the shell -prompt. It does this by searching for an executable or script in the -directories listed in the environment variable PATH using the same -algorithm as bash(1).") + "which is a program that prints the full paths of executables on a +system.") (license gpl3+))) ; some files are under GPLv2+ diff --git a/gnu/packages/xnee.scm b/gnu/packages/xnee.scm index 907117d73b..94842a599c 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/xnee.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/xnee.scm @@ -49,8 +49,7 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/xnee/") (synopsis "Record, replay and distribute user actions under X11") (description - "GNU Xnee is a suite of programs that can record, replay and distribute -user actions under the X11 environment. Think of it as a robot that can -imitate the job you just did. Xnee can be used to automate tests, demonstrate -programs, distribute actions, record & replay \"macros\", retype a file.") + "Xnee is a program that can record, replay and distribute user actions +in X11. It can be used to automate user interactions for testing or +demonstration purposes.") (license gpl3+))) diff --git a/gnu/packages/zile.scm b/gnu/packages/zile.scm index 4907031c89..0df53a69b8 100644 --- a/gnu/packages/zile.scm +++ b/gnu/packages/zile.scm @@ -59,20 +59,6 @@ (home-page "http://www.gnu.org/software/zile/") (synopsis "Zile is lossy Emacs, a lightweight Emacs clone") (description - "GNU Zile, which is a lightweight Emacs clone. Zile is short -for Zile Is Lossy Emacs. Zile has been written to be as -similar as possible to Emacs; every Emacs user should feel at -home. - -Zile has all of Emacs's basic editing features: it is 8-bit -clean (though it currently lacks Unicode support), and the -number of editing buffers and windows is only limited by -available memory and screen space respectively. Registers, -minibuffer completion and auto fill are available. Function -and variable names are identical with Emacs's (except those -containing the word \"emacs\", which instead contain the word -\"zile\"!). - -However, all of this is packed into a program which typically -compiles to about 130Kb.") + "Zile is a lightweight Emacs clone. It usage is extremely similar to +that of Emacs but it carries a much lighter feature set.") (license gpl3+))) |