spack list: format version_json

[ax3l]

List the latest version of each package in JSON encoding.
Preparation for consumption for a "spack badge" service.

spack list --format version_json

[
  {"...": "..."},
  {"name": "adios2",
   "latest_version": "2.3.1",
   "versions": ["develop", "2.3.1", "2.2.0", "2.1.0", "2.0.0"],
   "homepage": "https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/center-projects/adios/",
   "file": "https://github.com/spack/spack/blob/develop/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/adios2/package.py",
   "maintainers": ["ax3l", "chuckatkins"],
   "dependencies": {"build": ["cmake", "pkgconfig", "mpi", "zeromq", "hdf5", "adios", "bzip2", "zfp", "python", "py-numpy", "py-mpi4py"], "link": ["mpi", "zeromq", "hdf5", "adios", "bzip2", "zfp", "python"], "run": ["python", "py-numpy", "py-mpi4py"], "test": []}},
  {"...": "..."},
  {"name": "zsh",
   "latest_version": "5.4.2",
   "versions": ["5.4.2", "5.3.1", "5.1.1"],
   "homepage": "http://www.zsh.org",
   "file": "https://github.com/spack/spack/blob/develop/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/zsh/package.py",
   "maintainers": [],
   "dependencies": {"build": ["pcre", "ncurses"], "link": ["pcre", "ncurses"], "run": [], "test": []}},
  {"name": "zstd",
   "latest_version": "1.4.0",
   "versions": ["1.4.0", "1.3.8", "1.3.0", "1.1.2"],
   "homepage": "http://facebook.github.io/zstd/",
   "file": "https://github.com/spack/spack/blob/develop/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/zstd/package.py",
   "maintainers": [],
   "dependencies": {"build": [], "link": [], "run": [], "test": []}}
]

Generating a package index suitable for RESTful consumption in a static HTML service:

base_dir=$(pwd)/packages/
for pkg in $(spack list --format version_json | jq -c '.[]')
do
    name="$(echo ${pkg} | jq -r '.name')";
    first_letter=${name::1}
    mkdir -p ${base_dir}${first_letter}/
    echo ${pkg} > ${base_dir}${first_letter}/${name}.json
done

$ tree packages
packages/
├── a
│   ├── abinit.json
│   ├── abyss.json
│   ├── accfft.json
│   ├── ack.json
│   ├── activeharmony.json
│   ├── acts-core.json
│   ├── adept-utils.json
│   ├── adios2.json
│   ├── adios.json
...
├── y
│   ├── yajl.json
│   ├── yambo.json
│   ├── yaml-cpp.json
│   ├── yara.json
│   ├── yasm.json
│   └── yorick.json
└── z
    ├── z3.json
    ├── zeromq.json
    ├── zfp.json
    ├── zip.json
    ├── zlib.json
    ├── zoltan.json
    ├── zsh.json
    └── zstd.json

$ du -hs packages/                                                                                                       (topic-
13M	packages/
$ tree packages/ | wc -l                                                                                                     (topic-
3260

[alalazo]

Just a couple of minor comments

[alalazo]

Should we return the highest numeric or the preferred version?

[ax3l]

Good idea, actually highest_numeric(True) is hopefully the preferred one in default settings... Any idea how to adjust this?
Alternatively it's probably ok for a first implementation.

[tgamblin]

so irritating