Chapter 2. Onscreen Fundamentals

KPackage has two panels. The left panel displays a tree of the installed and available packages, the right panel displays information on the packages.

The Main Window - Package Tree

When KPackage is started normally (that is it has not been invoked via drag and drop and has not been given any parameters) it displays two panels with the package tree on the left, this tree shows installed packages and optionally new and updated packages as well.

Left Panel - Package Tree

The left panel displays the list of packages, the tabs along the top determines which packages are displayed:

Installed - Show installed packages
Updated - Show packages for which newer versions are available
New - Show uninstalled packages
All - All packages

Below the tabs is the Search line, this filters the package tree so that only those packages whose name or summary contains the search string are displayed.

The package tree is based on the sections of the distribution and shows summary information about the packages:

Package - Name of the package
Mark - Shows a tick if the package has been marked. Marking allows multiple packages to be installed or uninstalled at once using the buttons located below the package tree.
Summary- A short description of the package.
Size- The package size
Version - The package version
Old Version - If the package updates an installed package, the version of the old package

The packages have graphical labels to indicate their state, an image representing the package type means an installed package, a N indicates an available package and a U means a package that can upgrade an installed package.

A single package is selected by clicking on the name. Clicking on the dot in the Mark column marks the package with a tick, a second click unmarks it, while Shift+left click can be used to mark a range of packages and Ctrl+left click can be used to add and remove marks on packages.

Selecting a package from the tree displays information about it in the right panel.