#1111971 ITP: pagefind -- search functionality for static websites

Package:
wnpp
Source:
wnpp
Submitter:
Jonas Smedegaard
Date:
2026-04-17 05:35:01 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1111971#5
Date:
2025-08-24 14:56:59 UTC
From:
To:
* Package name    : pagefind
  Version         : 1.4.0~alpha1
  Upstream Contact: https://github.com/cloudcannon/pagefind/issues
* URL             : https://pagefind.app/
* License         : Expat
  Programming Lang: Rust
  Description     : search functionality for static websites

 Pagefind is a fully static search library
 that aims to perform well on large sites,
 while using as little of your users’ bandwidth as possible,
 and without hosting any infrastructure.

This package will be maintained in the collaborative debian section of
Salsa, at <https://salsa.debian.org/debian/pagefind>.
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#1111971#12
Date:
2026-04-16 21:43:18 UTC
From:
To:
Hello Jonas!

If you have the time to package this soon I would sincerely appreciate
it!  The absence of Pagefind in Debian is one of the things that is
blocking #1056364.

Kind regards,
Nicholas
#1111971#19
Date:
2026-04-16 22:07:49 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Nicholas,

Quoting Nicholas D Steeves (2026-04-16 23:43:18)
introduction of v0.24 of Rust crate selectors, which time cannot buy:
I have tried but been unable to patch lol_html to use tselectors v0.25
in Debian, I have succeeded with the older v0.24. It is maintained in
the Rust team, so if you could try either convince them or have them
package lol_html and patch it to use the newer selectors, then indeed
we just need time (and some work) packaging the rest.

You are quite welcome to help package the missing crates as well.

The missing tasks are listed here:
https://salsa.debian.org/debian/pagefind/-/blob/debian/latest/debian/TODO

Kind regards, and happy to know that others have interest in this too,

 - Jonas
#1111971#24
Date:
2026-04-17 05:32:43 UTC
From:
To:
Hi again, Nicolas,

Quoting Jonas Smedegaard (2026-04-17 00:07:49)
seemingly touch neither Javascript nor Rust library packaging.
Pagefind require both, and I have not even begun to look into its
JavaScript needs - the numbers shared above are only the Rust part.

From a brief look at the JavaScript needs, it looks like it uses Svelte
which is not yet in Debian and potentially is a headache to package.
Even if not, you should expect 10's if not 100's of JavaScript
packages needed in addition to the Rust packages.

To put it another way: To answer your question of "soon", the answer is
a solid "only maybe", and my "soon" is measured in months if not years,
not weeks.

I also had a look at bug#1056364 and notice that the need for Pagefind
seemingly is merely for search functionality for a documentation site.

I strongly recommend looking into patching away that functionality - or
better: work with upstream to make that feature optional - I am sure
other downstreams than Debian will appreciate the ability to skip this
quite cool but also quite complex to build feature.

That said, I really would appreciate any and all help towards getting
Pagefind packaged. It really is a quite cool project.

Kind regards,

 - Jonas