correct usage of slackpkg
 

When you install slackpkg (for 10.1 for example) you'll see that the /etc/slackpkg/mirrors file contains a whole bunch of entries for mirrors and they al point to: http://.............../slackware/slackware-10.1/

The correct procedure (correct me if i'm wrong) is to update slackpkg once (slackpkg update) to get the list of all the recent packages and then use slackpkg upgrade slackware (or package by package or whatever you want)

But what I did a few times now is put a mirror in the mirrors file that points to /slackware/slackware-current/
This way i am sure that i get all the latest packages.

But a friend told me that i shouldn't do that and that i have to point my mirror in the mirrors file to /slackware/slackware-10.1 because that's the proper configuration and that only those packages should be installed with that slackware-version.

Right now i'm working on a 10.0 machine and a couple of days ago installed slackpkg on it, and configured it to use a /slackware-current/ folder and ran slackpkg update and then slackpkg upgrade slackware (wich updates everyting)

But is this the right way to do it ? Or is it not advisable to use this when slack goes to 11.0 for example ?

AFAIK slackpkg will work with either, i.e. stable and current, so it's up to you to decide for each machine which branch you follow, depending on your needs.

So you use slackpkg
- to follow the security updates of a stable version
- to follow the current version

but you do *not* use slackpkg to upgrade from 10.1 to 10.2 or whatever the next stable version will be called. For that, there are upgrade instructions with each stable release, but there's no automatic way with slackpkg.

HTH.

Ok, that's all clear to me, but my way (with the current direcotry) isn't wrong ? or .. ?

I know i won't really have a 10.2 (for example) when i upgrade all the packages.

By the way, can you tell me the difference between versions then ? I mean, all the packages and the kernel and so can be upgraded using slackpkg, but is it just the system configuration that changes every version or someting like that ?

I think the way i'm gonna do it (in the future) is:

Install a major release. Install slackpkg and use the /current/ for slackpkg and whenever there comes a new major release install my machine all over and start again with slackpkg and use /current/ again. Seems like a good idea, doesn't it ?

Your way is entirely correct if you want a -current system. It's probably less stable than the -stable system, but that way you get newer packages. If you don't run critical servers and you can live with minor problems every now and then, go ahead.

IIRC slackpkg does not upgrade some packages like the kernel, which is why it's not a full update to a new version. But you can do that manually if you wish, so you don't have to reinstall everything when a new version arrives.

Although I would recommend doing so, just to be on the safe side. But then, I am a 'stable' guy, and I don't follow -current ;-)

By default slackpkg also upgrades the kernel, i last week i did a slackpkg upgrade slackware and the kernel came with it to (i know you can blacklist packages).

Anyway, i don't use /current/ on my webserver, just on my client where i'm typing at now (for a client I just want the latest and the gratest :)

You're right, it was "aaa_elflibs" which was blacklisted by default.

A few more questions then..

My webserver is slackware 10.0. I don't like do see it go off-line or stop working, so it should be "stable" ;) But what is the best way to still keep it up to date then, configuring /slackware-10.1/ in the mirrors file wouldn't be the right way (according to your post above) ? (so i need to use the update instructions)

On the mirror i usualy use are a lot of dirs.

slackware-8.0/
slackware-9.0/
slackware-9.1/
slackware-10.1/
and
slackware-current/

etc etc,

But also:

slackware/

I assume that this slackware/ dir is the latest stable ? or not ?




EDIT: I just read the 10.0 -> 10.1 upgrade howto, pretty easy, so i know what i have to do :)

No.
slackware-current/ will be updated very often and contains software up-to-date, sometimes they're not fully tested so this is not recommended for servers.
slackware-XX.X/ will contain the files of that XX.X version AND a directory called "patches" where security patches are stored for that version. So if you want to be stable but not current, you should point you updater software to this directory so it will install only the security patches that were released after the XX.X came out.
So if you want to keep a Slackware 10.0 updated with only security patches, point it to slackware-10.0/ directory.

Here you can see Slackware 10.1 stable changelog and also Slackware-current one: http://slackware.com/changelog/
Quoting that page:

Ok, that i understand, but what does that slackware/ directory do among these ?

/slackware-current/
/slackware-9.0/
/slackware-9.1/
/slackware-10.0/
/slackware-10./
/slackware/

That depends on the mirror, maybe it's a link to slackware-current, go inside it and compare the contents. On the mirrors I usually use there's not such slackware directory along the others, but there's a slackware/ directory which contains the different versions, like slackware/slackware-10.1 or slackware/slackware-current.
Also inside each version directory there's a slackware directory that contains the main (not patches, not extras) packages, like slackware-10.1/slackware or slackware-current/slackware.

I know, but this one is really standing next to all the others, and yes, offcourse, it's a symlink to 10.1 (don't know why i didn't think of that, maybe cause i was webbrowsing the ftp-server) (but i was right about it being the latest stable :P hehe)

I guess that for slackpkg you should use /slackware-10.1 and not /slackware, as the latter may point to the latest release whereas the former will always point to 10.1.

Yes offcourse, the symlink will change once slack 10.2 or 11.0 is ready.