find_provider.py

#!/usr/bin/env python2

import subprocess
import re

pkg_list = subprocess.check_output(['pacman','-Qii'])
pkg_list = re.split("\n\n", pkg_list)[:-1]

# List of dictionaries containing, for each package, its name and what it provides
pkg_info = list()

pattern_dict = {'name': r"Name[ ]*: ([\w_.-]*)",
                'provides': r"Provides[ ]*: ([\w_.-]*)"}

for pkg in pkg_list:
  filtered_data = re.split("\n", pkg)
  filtered_dict = dict()
  for data in filtered_data:
    for field,pattern in pattern_dict.iteritems():
      m = re.search(pattern, data)
      if m:
        filtered_dict[field] = m.groups()[0]

  if len(filtered_dict) > 0:
    pkg_info.append(filtered_dict)

# Search for names and provides:
def find_providers(pkg_name):
  """
  Search for packages providing "pkg_name".
  """
  providers = list()
  for pkg in pkg_info:
    for value in pkg.values():
      if value == pkg_name:
        providers.append(pkg['name'])
  return providers

print find_providers("ogre")
print find_providers("yaml-cpp")
print find_providers("sddm")
print find_providers("vim")