Question about installing Apostrophe markdown from AUR

General system Newbie
1

Greetings lovely community,

Apostrophe (Gitlab) is this very simple markdown editor for Gnome that I’ve used in the past before via it’s flatpak counterpart. It’s a somewhat new application, not part of the Gnome core apps, but part of the Gnome Circle Apps. Since I’m attempting to stay within the Arch ecosystem as much as possible, I’d only use the flatpak as a backup option (side note, I do approve of flatpaks!), so if I can just to immerse myself fully within Arch I’d like to do that if that makes sense.

Okay enough waffling! I went to install Apostrophe just now with yay but before I installed it, I think yay is drawing in like a ton of extra packages. When I check the Apostrophe AUR page it shows 16 dependencies, most of which I already have installed. So my question is why is yay -S apostrophe pulling in so many packages? I’m sure the answer is quite obvious, I’m just not understanding it properly I think. It’s drawing in like all the haskell packages and right now I’m debating if I really even need/want to do that or maybe just go with the flatpak on this one. Any advice, corrections, and/or assistance would be much appreciated, thanks!

Edit: I selected option 1 btw

[scott@endeavourOS ~]$ yay -S apostrophe
:: There are 2 providers available for apostrophe:
:: Repository AUR
    1) apostrophe 2) apostrophe-git 

Enter a number (default=1): 
:: Checking for conflicts...
:: Checking for inner conflicts...
[Repo:135]  ghc-libs-9.0.1-5  haskell-network-3.1.2.2-19  haskell-th-compat-0.1.3-8  haskell-network-uri-2.6.4.1-46  haskell-http-4000.3.16-83  haskell-primitive-0.7.2.0-24  haskell-vector-0.12.3.1-10  haskell-zlib-0.6.2.3-44  haskell-juicypixels-3.3.5-113  haskell-sha-1.6.4.4-18  haskell-hashable-1.3.3.0-17  haskell-integer-logarithms-1.0.3.1-5  haskell-scientific-0.3.7.0-24  haskell-attoparsec-0.14.1-34  haskell-base-compat-0.11.2-6  haskell-base-compat-batteries-0.11.2-157  haskell-data-fix-0.3.2-13  haskell-dlist-1.0-110  haskell-base-orphans-0.8.5-9  haskell-tagged-0.8.6.1-4  haskell-distributive-0.6.2.1-113  haskell-indexed-traversable-0.1.1-5  haskell-transformers-compat-0.7.1-1  haskell-comonad-5.0.8-109  haskell-th-abstraction-0.4.3.0-1  haskell-bifunctors-5.5.11-30  haskell-assoc-1.0.2-105  haskell-these-1.1.1.1-106  haskell-strict-0.4.0.1-79  haskell-time-compat-1.9.6.1-8  haskell-unordered-containers-0.2.14.0-24  haskell-splitmix-0.1.0.3-155  haskell-random-1.2.1-17  haskell-uuid-types-1.0.5-28  haskell-aeson-1.5.6.0-54  haskell-cmdargs-0.10.21-3  haskell-aeson-pretty-0.8.9-4  haskell-base64-bytestring-1.2.1.0-12  haskell-blaze-builder-0.4.2.2-1  haskell-blaze-markup-0.8.2.8-41  haskell-blaze-html-0.9.1.2-135  haskell-case-insensitive-1.2.1.0-114  haskell-data-default-class-0.1.2.0-23  haskell-data-default-instances-containers-0.0.1-35  haskell-data-default-instances-dlist-0.0.1-187  haskell-old-locale-1.0.0.7-29  haskell-data-default-instances-old-locale-0.0.1-35  haskell-data-default-0.7.1.1-174  haskell-file-embed-0.0.14.0-3  haskell-erf-2.0.0.0-23  haskell-quickcheck-2.14.2-228  haskell-syb-0.7.2.1-83  haskell-pandoc-types-1.22-110  haskell-safe-0.3.19-7  haskell-text-icu-0.7.1.0-3  haskell-th-lift-0.8.2-10  haskell-th-lift-instances-0.1.18-77  haskell-unicode-collation-0.1.3.1-1  haskell-uniplate-1.6.13-81  haskell-split-0.2.3.4-156  haskell-vector-algorithms-0.8.0.4-76  haskell-mono-traversable-1.0.15.3-6  haskell-unliftio-core-0.2.0.1-8  haskell-resourcet-1.2.4.3-13  haskell-conduit-1.3.4.2-6  haskell-async-2.2.3-83  haskell-streaming-commons-0.2.2.1-105  haskell-typed-process-0.2.7.0-4  haskell-conduit-extra-1.3.5-175  haskell-xml-types-0.3.8-7  haskell-xml-conduit-1.9.1.1-50  haskell-citeproc-0.4.1-39  haskell-unicode-data-0.1.0.1-2  haskell-unicode-transforms-0.3.8-15  haskell-commonmark-0.2.1-19  haskell-emojis-0.1-122  haskell-commonmark-extensions-0.2.1.2-26  haskell-commonmark-pandoc-0.2.1.1-23  haskell-basement-0.0.12-3  haskell-cereal-0.5.8.1-11  haskell-socks-0.6.1-136  haskell-hourglass-0.2.12-157  haskell-memory-0.16.0-28  haskell-asn1-types-0.3.4-114  haskell-asn1-encoding-0.9.6-135  haskell-cryptonite-0.29-28  haskell-asn1-parse-0.9.5-135  haskell-pem-0.2.4-191  haskell-x509-1.7.5-171  haskell-x509-store-1.6.7-170  haskell-byteable-0.1.1-24  haskell-x509-validation-1.6.11-170  haskell-tls-1.5.5-52  haskell-x509-system-1.6.6-238  haskell-connection-0.3.1-148  haskell-doclayout-0.3.0.2-36  haskell-hsyaml-0.2.1.0-127  haskell-base16-bytestring-1.0.1.0-71  haskell-errors-2.3.0-63  haskell-text-conversions-0.3.1-93  haskell-doctemplates-0.10.0.1-3  haskell-glob-0.10.1-103  haskell-haddock-library-1.10.0-60  haskell-ipynb-0.1.0.1-245  haskell-jira-wiki-markup-1.4.0-24  haskell-colour-2.3.6-33  haskell-ansi-terminal-0.11-175  haskell-utf8-string-1.0.2-61  haskell-skylighting-core-0.11-36  haskell-skylighting-0.11-34  haskell-hslua-1.3.0.1-71  haskell-hslua-module-path-0.1.0.1-56  haskell-temporary-1.3-311  haskell-hslua-module-system-0.2.2.1-127  haskell-hslua-module-text-0.3.0.1-115  haskell-cookie-0.4.5-11  haskell-http-types-0.12.3-189  haskell-appar-0.1.8-12  haskell-byteorder-1.0.4-23  haskell-iproute-1.7.11-38  haskell-mime-types-0.1.0.9-13  haskell-http-client-0.7.9-10  haskell-http-client-tls-0.3.5.3-457  haskell-xml-1.3.14-29  haskell-texmath-0.12.3.1-16  haskell-tagsoup-0.14.8-137  haskell-digest-0.0.1.3-1  haskell-old-time-1.1.0.3-29  haskell-zip-archive-0.4.1-143  pandoc-2.14.1-54  python-pypandoc-1.6.4-1  python-regex-2021.8.28-1  python-levenshtein-0.12.2-1  python-pyenchant-3.2.1-1  otf-fira-mono-2:3.206-4
[Aur:1]  apostrophe-2.5-1

  1 apostrophe                       (Build Files Exist)
==> Packages to cleanBuild?
==> [N]one [A]ll [Ab]ort [I]nstalled [No]tInstalled or (1 2 3, 1-3, ^4)
2

I assume, that the apostrophe haskell dependencies have a lot of dependencies themselves. Didn’t check it.

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3

The following is just an alternative idea, and not a recommendation in any way.

I haven’t used apostrophe, but have been using this: Visual Studio Code.
It is an alternative markdown editor (among other things it can do).
Nowadays I’m doing all markdown editing with it.

It can be installed by e.g.

sudo pacman -S code

There are also other versions code code available if you prefer, you can search with

yay -Ss visual studio code
1 Like
4

And how many dependencies does each of those dependencies have?

EDIT - @Trekkie00 beat me… :grin:

2 Likes
5

I also installed a package (can’t remember which one) which required a ton of haskell stuff.
I just had a look using yay -Qs haskell. More than 200 haskell packages are installed on my system. Caught me by surprise, when I installed that (now) unknown package at that time. :wink:

1 Like
6

@Trekkie00 Yeah I know when you need haskell for something, it has to pretty much take in all of it I just didn’t see haskell on the AUR page so I was a bit surprised when it showed ALL those packages.

@manuel Linux doesn’t have a shortage of markdown editors that’s for sure! I just wanted to see if I could stick with some Gnome specific software. I wanted to see if maybe I could have Apostrophe replace Gedit for me. If I needed a serious markdown editor I’ve probably consider something like what you suggested, but for this particular case I’m just attempting to stay within Gnome software. Thanks for the suggestion though!

@Stagger_Lee That sounds like we’re going down a rabbit hole! :stuck_out_tongue:

@Trekkie00 I’m not sure of the pacman equivilent, but I use pamac's “View History” to show what I’ve installed based on the dates it was installed, so it’s helpful to track down what I installed when I installed it. I’m sure pacman has that feature too. I’ll have to look up that command for you cuz I’d like to know it too so I don’t have to rely on pamac for it :wink: …goes on a Google hunt

1 Like
7

There is a GUI tool for inspecting pacman.log:

 pacman -Si pacmanlogviewer 
Repository      : community
Name            : pacmanlogviewer
Version         : 1.4.3-1
Description     : Inspect pacman log files
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://opendesktop.org/content/show.php?content=150484
Licenses        : GPL
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : qt5-base  hicolor-icon-theme
Optional Deps   : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Download Size   : 61.95 KiB
Installed Size  : 147.03 KiB
Packager        : Fabio Castelli (Muflone) <muflone@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Sun 21 Mar 2021 11:33:46 PM CET
Validated By    : MD5 Sum  SHA-256 Sum  Signature

It’s a qt-based app if you don’t mind that.

8

Well if I already have the pamac GUI which is native GTK at least, I doubt I’d really want another GUI in another toolkit :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: When I was on Solus their package manager eopkg had a -history command that you could easily view packages by most recent installed, it was very simple and straightforward, but very fast and efficient imo.

1 Like
9

Right!
Me no have, sorry :blush:

1 Like
10

There’s also expac. Using something like, maybe:

expac --timefmt=%s '%b\t%n' | sort -n
2 Likes
11

I went ahead and installed it via yay -S apostrophe since all the haskell packages where in the main repos anyways (less AUR building woo!), but sadly it looks like it hardcodes(?) the Adwaita theme (able to change to light, sepia, or dark adwaita only*). Not really sure how I feel about that yet. I know it uses libhandy, but I don’t think it uses libadwaita yet. I don’t want to deal with any hardcoded themes until Gnome 42 (that’s a rant for another day!). Looks like I’ll probably just stick with Gedit for the time being, I’m not really an Adwaita fan at the moment, but it’s getting better I think. Plus I like consistency as much as possible with my system/themes, so Apostrophe I think I’m gonna have to give you the boot for now! Will probably test future versions still to check how it’s coming along.

Screenshot from 2021-11-14 14-55-42
Screenshot from 2021-11-14 14-58-16

12

Well, that is why.

It is trying to install pandoc, which has a million haskell dependencies, in total about 750 MiB of absolute rubbish! Why would anyone ever use such a crappy programming language, only to create software that is bloated and slow, it’s the stupidest thing ever, it’s pure soy instead of software…

Anyway, try installing pandoc-bin from the AUR first. Then install apostrophe, and it will pull maybe a dozen dependencies, unlike over 9000 as before. Much better! (still bloat tho)

2 Likes