Avoiding redundant installations with Slackware and pkgsrc
 

Slackware is very stable and very geek-friendly. I happen to love it... Unfortunately,
I've found it unsuitable for day-to-day stuff in recent years, because it doesn't have
a whole lot of software in its repos - and installing stuff from source can quickly lead
you into dependency hell.

But pkgsrc has a vast amount of software in it, and can run on Linux. So it could be a
solution, right?

Kind of.

The problem with pkgsrc is that the dependency resolution doesn't recognize stuff
installed through standard Slackware packages. If you try to compile Gnash with it
for instance, it will drag in Firefox and waste a few hours compiling that, even if you
already installed Firefox through pkgtools. So with a default setup, pkgsrc is
suitable for building on a very minimal Slackware system, but not for
extending a preexisting Slackware desktop with Xfce and Firefox and whatever.

Is there any way of changing this, so that pkgsrc registers preinstalled binaries as
providing whatever dependency? Or is that not possible? If not, is there any other
system that could provide dependency resolution for compiling stuff?

P.S. I've looked into Emerde, it seems to have the same problem as pkgsrc
unfortunately...

P.P.S. I've also seen stuff about sbopkg, which uses slackbuilds from Slackbuilds.org.
It looks interesting; however, it provides no dependency resolution at all, which could
get very annoying very quickly.

P.P.P.S. Apologies for the strange formatting, I'm posting this from Dillo and it's not wrapping
text automatically.

This may be of some assistance:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...4/#post4418248

Thanks for the info, though that wasn't what I was looking for... Actually the hassle of keeping stuff updated would be another reason for me not to use sbopkg.

Many things could be annoying; not so many are. Why not just try sbopkg for a little bit just to see how annoying it is?

You might be able to avail yourself to other people's sbopkg queues. http://gitorious.org/sbopkg-slackware-queues

A simple google gave this http://pbraun.nethence.com/doc/sysut...re_pkgsrc.html Old, but maybe helpful.

samac

Than what fun would it be if you didnt have to compile it your self?
Thats one of the main reasons I love Slackware the fact that I can control what gets installed in my system and what not. To know what dependencies you have to install for a pkg manually is priceless. At least I like to think so. It gives me the chance to "define" if I really need this pkg or not base on what I need to install... some libs I really like to avoid and if the pkg needs them I am away from it like it was a plague... I have been stuck in dependency hell before.... for example claws-mail in 13.1 will do that to you.... :)

Good Luck.

There are different definitions of dependency hell. The first is that you have to find out what dependencies are needed for a given package and install them first. The second definition is what you describe with pkgsrc where the automatic dependency resolution causes needless reinstallations or upgrades of packages already present on your system with the additional risk of breaking other programs. I think most slackware users consider the second definition to be true dependency hell, while the first definition is easily overcome (esp on slackbuilds.org/sbopkg where they are all clearly documented in the README for each program).

BTW, looking at claws mail on slackbuilds.org, there is only one dependency documented, which is of course available on the same site.

Actually sbopkg has a feature which checks for updates to all sbopkg packages and allows you to easily queue and install them.

In the future, don't try to format the text. Just press enter twice between each paragraph and don't put any line breaks inside the paragraphs. The forum software will take care of the rest.

The main problem with "emerde" for us, french speaking people it's that it's exactly sounds like "Et merde !" ("Oh shit!")... It has always sound funny and "shitty" to me just for that...

"Et merde !" another one not understanding the dependencies FREEDOM ! ;)

btw, I add to the other ones: sbopkg rulez, and it's NOT a problem when you know what you do and what you want... If you want just to click'n'play, windaubuntu is enough :). Don't believe what they say: it's really not that hard. And trust people here: it's better to know what you do, to avoid installing bloated programs and packages (often useless and buggy).

NoStressHQ, there is a long tradition in the open-source world of giving programs comical or strange names. I'm pretty sure that you have made the correct connection between 'emerde' and 'Et merde'. I took over maintainig a program called aine, which is a chat-bot using an AI language similar to AIML. The aine language used to be called 'AineL', which if pronounced in english comes out sounding just like the word 'anal'.

Have you heard of the program called 'more' which 'pages' text output -you know where at the bottom of each page of output it says "[more]"? Later developers wrote improved evrsions of 'more' -first the one called 'less' and then the one called 'most'.

Yeah I know, like flex and bison... (lex and yacc)...
But in that case, I'm not sure the 'pun' is intended:

( http://emerde.freaknet.org/faq.php )

On another hand as it seems to be an Italian job, and merde is close in both languages so you might be right... I just doubt it got a really good influence for french people... Because merde really feels like crap, rubbish, sticky and stinky, but you might already know being a neighbor :).

And everybody knows of that american planet named uranus, but nobody cares.

Edit: and yes of course for more, used a lot in dos time and I remember early linuxes having sometimes an alias more -> less (maybe it's still present, I haven't checked recently). But in my case, more makes me think to that crazy Barbet Schroeder movie and the marvelous Pink Floyd'soundtrack ;).