Consider the "All files in this package search" on <http://packages.debian.org>. The URL for such a search looks like this: http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=packagename&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=unstable&arch=i386 To create a "debfiles" [[shortcut|shortcuts]] that takes a package name, you could just hardcode the architecture and distribution: \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=unstable&arch=i386"]] \[[debfiles ikiwiki]] But what if you could have them as optional parameters instead? The syntax for the invocation should look like this: \[[debfiles ikiwiki dist=testing]] Some possible syntax choices for the shortcut definition: \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%(dist)s&arch=%(arch)s" dist="unstable" arch="i386"]] \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%(dist=unstable)s&arch=%(arch=i386)s"]] \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=%s&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=%{dist=unstable}&arch=%{arch=i386}"]] \[[shortcut name=debfiles url="http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=$*&searchmode=filelist&case=insensitive&version=${dist=unstable}&arch=${arch=i386}"]] --[[JoshTriplett]] Well, you can already do this kind of thing with templates. Invocation does look different: \[[template id=debfiles package=ikiwiki dist=testing]] --[[Joey]] > I think I would find templates sufficient, if: > > 1. I could use the name of the template as a preprocessor directive > (`\[[templatename ...]]`), rather than using the `template` directive > with an `id` argument (`\[[template id=templatename]]`). > 2. Template invocation allowed bare values in addition to `key=value` > arguments, and template definition supported some means to access the > value. This would allow `\[[debfiles ikiwiki]]` rather than > `\[[debfiles package=ikiwiki]]`. > 3. I could use ikiwiki syntax in the template, not just HTML and > HTML::Template. (If I can already do that, then [[/plugins/template]] > should make that more clear.) > > --[[JoshTriplett]]