I have been working on allowing anyone to set up their own distromatch instance.
For Debian and Ubuntu, I can easily generate the distromatch input using UDD and the Contents files found in any mirrors.
For the whole RPM world, thanks to Olivier Thauvin I have been able to set up regular exports from the vast Sophie database.
I have set up distromatch access on DDE, which can also serve as a list of all working distributions so far. If you have access to the full dataset of package names and package contents for a distribution not in that list, please get in touch and we can add it.
I'm also exporting the full raw dataset which enables anyone to set up the same distromatch environment on their own machines.
Here is how:
# Get distromatch
git clone git://gitorious.org/appstream/distromatch.git
cd distromatch
# Fetch distribution information (updated every 2 days)
wget http://dde.debian.net/exports/distromatch-all.tar.gz
# Unpack it
mkdir data
tar -C data -zxf distromatch-all.tar.gz
# Reindex it (use --verbose if you are curious)
./distromatch --datadir=data --reindex --verbose
# Run it
./distromatch --datadir=data debian gedit
What does this mean? For example it means that if another distribution has some data (categories, screenshots...) that your distribution doesn't have, you can use distromatch to translate package names, then go and get it!
My next step is going to be to improve the distromatch functionality in DDE and possibly build a simple user friendly web interface to it. If you have some JQuery experience and would like to help, don't wait to get in touch.