Slackware General Package Question
 

I've been trying to play DVDs on Xine with encryption problems, and discovered I needed libdvdcss, so I went to the website and downloaded it this one:
libdvdcss-1.2.9-i486-1kjz.tar.gz (interestingly, when I downloaded it (using windows2000:rolleyes: ) it automatically uncompressed)
So I dumped the tar into the root and xvvf'd it, and xine worked:) .
Two things bother me:
First, my understanding is that an INSTALL directory is created/used for uninstallion purposes, but this was put in the root - is this right? I thought no directories should ever be built in root aside from original installation.

And second, when I run pkgtool, I can't find it.
Is this because I just untarred it? so what can I do to get this package 'visible' in pkgtool?

Thanks

You will only get a package to be managed by pkgtool when you install a slackpackage as in a *.tgz, and using installpkg etc.
If you want the package to be managed by slack you need a slack pack, you can build them or maybe look on http:://linuxpackages.net for it or maybe our good friend google can turn the package up for you.
Yes that is the wrong place for that to be installed.

Thanks for that. As for INSTALL directory, it wsnt me that put it there! Perhaps I used to incorrect tar - i486. Ah well, it works.

It is normal that the /install folder will be created when you install a Slackware package. If you use pkgtool(s) to install the tgz this folder will be deleted automatically after the install-scripts have been run. Of course it will be permanent if you just untar the file.

I see, thanks for that.
In fact, I've been having strange issues with this. I've got an ATI graphics card so I downloaded the proprietry drivers from Ati website as a DBM. To convert it, I used the tool DBN2TGZ.
When I ran this, however, it didnt convert to .Tgz, but to a tar.gz:confused: . When I ran PKGTOOL, it couldnt find it. Using INSTALPKG on the file returned the message that the package had to be a TGZ file. Why doesnt DBN2TGZ do what is says? And is it a simple matter of just renaming *.tar.gz to *.tgz? Thanks

A tgz IS a tar.gz file, but it usually has an /install folder in it with a slack-desc (the package description) and possibly a doinst.sh for doing tasks like creating symlinks and other optional post-installation steps.
I don't know if it must have an /install folder -- I guess no.

There is, or should be, no /install directory on the system. This exists only in the tarball to store the slack-desc and install scripts. /install does not _have_ to exist, if it doesn't installpkg will not complain. If I understand correctly, you untar'ed the package in /, in which case you did NOT install it properly. Use installpkg <pkg> to install *.tgz packages. However, whether the tarball that dbn2tgz created can usefully be installed depends on the file structure of the package.

For files that are not Slackware native you can download a program called checkinstall that will run the make install for you and register that package for pkgtool.