Debtags is the replacement for the Debian package sections that scales well with the size of the archive.

It uses multiple categories per package (tags in short), chosen from a controlled vocabulary, organised borrowing principles of faceted classification.

Every tag belongs to a facet, which clearly defines its meaning and context. A facet is a point of view from which we look at the package archive.

Some facets are quite generic:

• role: role of the package in the system (program, plugin, documentation, development library...)
• use: main purpose of the program (browsing, chatting, searching...)
• implemented-in: language the software is implemented in (C, C++, ...)
• interface: user interface of the package (x11, commandline, text mode, web...)
• works-with: what kind of data can be processed with this packag (audio, plain text, images...)

Since it is not compulsory for a package to have a tag from every facet defined by Debtags, there are facets that are specific to some particular domain or group of users:

• admin: purpose of the package when doing system administration (backup, boot, logging...)
• devel: purpose of the package when doing software development (bugtracker, compiler, debugger, library...)
• game: what kind of game is provided by the package (adventure, arcade, sport...)
• sound: purpose of the package when working with sound and music (mixer, player, recorder, sequencer...)

These are some examples: there are of course many more.

These are some advantages of this system:

• A package is not classified using a single concept, but using a superimposition of various different concepts, along different points of view. This means that it is possible to create rather precise classifications, such as "role::program, interface::x11, works-with::mail, use::viewing, uitoolkit::gtk, implemented-in::c"

• One does not need to have a category for everything, since concepts can be easily approximated. For example, it does not make sense to introduce a devel::lang:brainfuck tag for just a couple of packages, but that can easily be approximated using devel::interpreter, devel::compiler and use::entertaining.

• One can start a search from the most intuitive point of view. Some people may approach an image editor starting from use::viewing, while some may approach it starting from works-with::image: for Debtags, it does not matter.

• Every tag is well defined. Belonging to a facet gives tags a very precise meaning: compare a hypothetical tag "c++" with the tags implemented-in::c++ and devel::lang:c++ used by Debtags.