Usage: ara <options or queries ...>
 -examples         Display some documentation including examples exit.
 -interactive      Interactive mode ; prompt for a query, display it.
 -i                Same as -interactive.
 -noconfig         Don't attempt to create a configuration file.
 -nohistory        Don't save command history.
 -config           Specify alternate config file (default ~/.ara/ara.config)
 -fast             Run faster but use more memory.
 -slow             Use minimal amount of memory but run very slowly.
 -cache-strings    With -fast, try to conserve memory somewhat.
 -version          Print version.
 -about            Display copyright, thanks and dedication.
 -progress         Show progress indicator when loading database.
 -noprogress       Don't show progress indicator.
 -new              Show only newest version of each package. (default)
 -old              List all versions of packages.
 -query <query>    Query (eg. depends:xlibs & !package:xcalc).
 -q <query>        Same as -query.
 -short <query>    Display names of packages satisfying query between a pair of curly braces.
 -list <query>     Same, but display one package name per line, and no curly braces (default).
 -raw <query>      For each package satisfying the query, display all selected fields.
 -table <query>    Display results as a table.
 -count <query>    Display number of matching packages.
 -rows <height>    Set height of terminal for interactive display (default 25)
 -columns <width>  Set width of terminal for interactive display (default 75)
 -wrap             Do word wrapping.
 -nowrap           Don't do word wrapping.
 -pager            Use a pager for displaying long output in interactive mode
 -nopager          Don't use a pager for displaying long output in interactive mode
 -borders          Draw ASCII borders for tabular output. (default)
 -noborders        Don't draw ASCII borders for tabular output.
 -ast              Dump the abstract syntax tree of parsed queries to stderr.
 -debug            Enable debugging information
 -debug-level      Set debugging level (higher is more verbose, max is 100, default is 10)
 -raise-exceptions Don't catch exceptions.  Useful with OCAMLRUNPARAM=b=1 in bytecode.

-help             Display this list of options
--help            Display this list of options

-fields <field_1[:width_1],...> Limit output to specified fields for the -table and -raw options.  The optional width specifiers are used with the -table option, ignored otherwise. Use * to display all fields (but remember to escape the star character from your shell).

$ ara -examples ara -list 'section=utils' List the name of every package in section utils.

ara -list 'section=utils and not depends:(gnome or kde or gtk)' … except those whose dependency field contains gnome or kde or gtk

ara -set 'section=utils and not depends:(gnome|kde|gtk) & priority=optional' … list multiple names per line, and show only optional packages.

ara -set 'section=utils & !depends:(gtk|gnome|kde) & priority=optional & size<100000' … exclude packages greater than 99999 bytes.

ara -set 'section=utils & (!Depends=~/gtk\|gnome\|kde/ |
Size<100000) & Priority=optional'
   ... well, exclude gtk,gnome or kde stuff only if 100000 bytes
   or greater.

ara -fields Package,Size,Maintainer:20 -table 'section=utils &
(!depends:(gtk|gnome|kde) | size<100000) & priority=optional'
   ... show Package, Size and Maintainer fields from the above
   results as a nice ascii table, limiting the maintainer field
   to 20 characters.

ara -fields Package:8,Size,Description:100 -table 'section=games &
!depends:(gtk|sdl|kde|opengl|gnome) &
!description:(/shoot|kill|destroy|blast|race|bomb/iw |
/multi\(-\|\)player\|strategy\|conquest\|3\(-\|\)d/iw) &
depends:(xlibs|vga) & !size>1000000'
   Assuming a 125-column display, display the first eight characters of the
   package name, the size in bytes, and the first hundred characters of the
   description of all packages in the games section not exceeding one
   million bytes, not depending on fancy stuff like gtk,SDL,KDE,OpenGL or
   Gnome, not mentioning some forms of violence (to shoot, to kill, etc.)
   in its description, not described as multi-player, strategy, conquest or
   three-dimensional games, yet depending on either xlibs or svga to exclude
   console-based games.

Example 1
#fields package,maintainer:30,version:20 #table section=utils & (!depends:(gtk|gnome|kde) | size<100000) & priority=optional

Example 2
section=utils and status:/^install/

Example 3
section=utils & (!depends:(gtk|gnome|kde) | size<100000) & priority=optional

Example 4
#set new
#set borders
#set fields Package:20,Version:10,Status:10,Description:35
#table
section=games & (/[^ ]etris/i or /fall.* block/)
$T := section=games & (/[^ ]etris/i or /fall.* block/)
$T & !depends:(kde or qt or gnome or emacs)
>/tmp/tetrises.txt $T & !depends:(kde or qt or gnome or emacs)

ara -interactive

#set fields Package,Description:50,Tag:40
#table

$I := status:/^install/

$I & tag:culture
$I & tag:packaging
$I & tag:(devel and (environment or examples or docsystem))
$I & tag:(devel and (debugger or profiler or testing))
$I & tag:devel
$I & tag:education
$I & tag:field
$I & tag:game
$I & tag:ipv6
$I & tag:junior
$I & tag:mail
$I & tag:media
$I & tag:sound
$I & tag:(suite and (apache or gforge or gnustep or kde or netscape))
$I & tag:(suite and (opie or roxen or xfce or zope))
$I & tag:dbtech
$I & tag:mp3
$I & tag:screensaver
$I & tag:window-manager
$I & tag:(format and (mp3 or ogg or rss or sgml or tex or vorbis or vrml))