LinuxQuestions.org - [ANN] First public release of multilibpkg !

Hello Slackers,

As I said in another post, after having wrote compat32pkg, I started to write another tools for the multilib which I called multilibpkg.

This tool aims to help user to manage (install, upgrade, uninstall) the 64-bit part of alienBob's multilib for Slackware-64, which includes the packages below :

glibc
glibc-i18n
glibc-profile
glibc-solibs
glibc-zoneinfo
gcc
gcc-g++
gcc-gfortran
gcc-gnat
gcc-java
gcc-objc
compat32-tools

You will find this new tool and a full documentation at http://multilibpkg.sourceforge.net

However, before grabbing it, let me talk a bit about it.

First of all, multilibpkg is only able to manage the 64-bit part of the multilib. This means that to manage the 32-bit part of the multilib (ie the 32-bit
compatibility layer), you will have to use compat32pkg, or by any other way.

To install the "64-bit part of the multilib", multilibpkg must be used in mode --install. As this mode requires a source to get multilib
packages, a multilib-mirror should have to be supplied in argument of parameter --mirror, unless a default-mirror has been defined into
configuration's script /etc/multilibpkg/multilibpkg.conf (variable DEFAULT_ML64_MIRROR) :

Code:

$ multilibpkg --mirror @Official-13.1 --install



$ multilibpkg --install

--install can also be used in one of the two degraded mode: --download-only and --dry-run. The first will only download the packages
and the second will download them and simulates only their installation :

Code:

$ multilibpkg --install --download-only



$ multilibpkg --mirror @Official-current --install --dry-run

multilibpkg allows user to check/enumerate available updates for the 64-bit part of the multilib installed onto the local system. As
--install, a multilib-mirror is required unless a default mirror is defined :

Code:



$ multilibpkg --mirror @Official-13.0 --check-updates



$ multilibpkg --check-updates



$ multilibpkg --mirror http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/multilib/13.1 --list-updates



$ multilibpkg --mirror ~/mirrors/~alien-multilib/13.0 --list-updates

When updates are available, you can install them using multilibpkg in mode --upgrade :

Code:

$ multilibpkg --upgrade



$ multilibpkg --mirror @Official-13.1 --upgrade

Like --install, --upgrade can be used in degraded-mode --download-only or --dry-run

Code:

$ multilibpkg --upgrade --download-only



$ multilibpkg --mirror @Official-13.1 --upgrade --dry-run

multilibpkg can also used to uninstall the 64-bit part of the multilib. In argument this mode requires a Slackware-64 mirror from which
multilibpkg will get the 64-bit pure packages that will supersede the packages that provide the 64-bit part of the multilib. Unlike others
mode, there's no way to define a default Slackware-64 mirror :

Code:

$ multilibpkg --uninstall ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/slackware/slackware64-13.0



$ multilibpkg --uninstall @Netherlands-13.1

In fact, the uninstall is a two step process. 1) installed packages of the "64-bit part of the multilib" are superseded by their 64-bit pure counterpart
available onto the selected slackware-64 mirror. 2) The installed packages of the "64-bit part of the multilib" which have no 64-bit pure counterpart are removed.

Like --install and --upgrade, --uninstall can be used in degraded-mode --download-only or --dry-run :

Code:

$ multilibpkg --uninstall @Finland-13.0 --download-only



$ multilibpkg --uninstall @USA-13.1 --dry-run

To avoid system breakage, multilibpkg includes also a mechanism to preventing of installation of incompatible version of the multilib, and to
preventing of uninstalling the multilib using an incompatible version of slackware.

Finally, I will talk about compat32pkg which has been a bit improved few day ago. Indeed, I added an alias (ie layer-32) for the file
/etc/compat32pkg/multilib-32bit-packages.lst which aims to simplify management of the 32-bit part of the multilib. By now,
this layer can be installed, upgraded, uninstalled like that :

Code:

$ compat32pkg --mirror @UK-13.0 --install layer-32



$ compat32pkg --mirror @Norway-13.1 --upgrade layer-32



$ compat32pkg --remove layer-32

So with this new version of compat32pkg and the new tool multilibpkg, the installation (for example) of the multilib could be done
like this :

Code:

$ multilibpkg --mirror @Official-13.1 --install && compat32pkg --mirror @USA-13.1 --install layer-32

Hoping all of this will be helpful.

Have Fun !

Cheers.