Dummy packages in Section: oldlibs should not be displayed

[Scott Ritchie]

It has now become standard that transitional dummy packages are moved into Section: oldlibs in their meta tags. Software center should not display these, as it is always the case that they simply depend on the "real" package.

Ideally, data about the dummy package should migrate to the real one as well (for instance, a search for ktron in raring USC is currently showing the dummy package and not the real one).

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

A transitional dummy package shouldn't show up in default search results, certainly, or probably even in "technical items".

It should still show up in "History" (since it wasn't always transitional), and perhaps also in "Installed".

So there's a line to be drawn somewhere. Perhaps it should show up in search results if the search string exactly matches the name of the package?

A nice touch would be for these packages to have a different icon, like a ghostly or dotted version of the generic package icon.

[Scott Ritchie (scottritchie)]

Steve Langasek doesn't think actual old libraries should show up either, so we may be able to just make a generic filter for all packages in the oldlibs section.