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Old 07-20-2005, 08:34 AM   #1
Crashed_Again
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Package Manger


I used Slack a while back and I enjoyed it a lot. The only issue I had was finding a decent package manager. This was mostly my fault as I did not spend a lot of time or effort in looking for one.

What, if any, is the defacto package manager for slackware? I know there are a few available but which one has the largest repository? I just want some opinions on how Slackers attack package management.

Thanks in advance.
 
Old 07-20-2005, 08:42 AM   #2
keefaz
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For my part I use makepkg to make packages,
I use installpkg to install packages,
upgradepkg to upgrade packages
and removepkg to remove packages

This is how I attack package management

Now to upgrade the official slackware packages,
I use slackpkg
 
Old 07-20-2005, 12:37 PM   #3
ringwraith
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Crash, search the forum, you will find this is a very argued about thing. THere is no official package manager as you probably mean it. There are a couple of third party apps that some people use. I will not say anything bad about them....... no really, I won't....... gotta run...... before....
 
Old 07-20-2005, 12:44 PM   #4
tuxdev
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I've used Slapt-get and Swaret, along with the linuxpackages.net repository. You have to monitor it carefully so that you don't break anything, especially if you are going to upgrade a/
 
Old 07-20-2005, 08:29 PM   #5
Crashed_Again
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Quote:
Originally posted by ringwraith
Crash, search the forum, you will find this is a very argued about thing. THere is no official package manager as you probably mean it. There are a couple of third party apps that some people use. I will not say anything bad about them....... no really, I won't....... gotta run...... before....
Its a shame that their is no "official" package manager or even a suggested package manager by Slackware.
 
Old 07-20-2005, 09:01 PM   #6
ringwraith
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Quote:
Originally posted by Crashed_Again
Its a shame that their is no "official" package manager or even a suggested package manager by Slackware.
Is this a gentoo troll? Slackware is the oldest linux distro still in production. It has never had an official package manager. It is assumed that a Slack user is intelligent enough to manage his own system. But whatever floats your boat.

And after thinking about this some more, what are the odds that someone with over 3000 posts didn't know the answer to this question before they asked it. Even more reason to suspect your motives.

Last edited by ringwraith; 07-20-2005 at 09:04 PM.
 
Old 07-21-2005, 03:13 AM   #7
shilo
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Quote:
Its a shame that their is no "official" package manager
http://www.frozenblue.net/tools/slac...anagement.html

For the lazy.

Quote:
There's a myth that's been going around ever since RedHat debuted RedHat Package Manager, that Slackware has no package management tool. This simply couldn't be further from the truth. Slackware has always included a package manager, even before RedHat existed. While not as full-featured or as ubiquitous as rpm (or for that matter deb), pkgtool and its associated programs are every bit as good at installing packages as rpm. The truth about pkgtool is not that it doesn't exist, but that it doesn't do any dependency checking.
Quote:
or even a suggested package manager by Slackware.
The suggestion that you use pkgtool or it's associated scripts is at the very least strongly implied. It's the package manager used during installation.

Slackware also includes a handy dependency checking tool called ldd.
 
Old 07-21-2005, 05:48 AM   #8
Crashed_Again
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Quote:
Originally posted by ringwraith
Is this a gentoo troll? Slackware is the oldest linux distro still in production. It has never had an official package manager. It is assumed that a Slack user is intelligent enough to manage his own system. But whatever floats your boat.

And after thinking about this some more, what are the odds that someone with over 3000 posts didn't know the answer to this question before they asked it. Even more reason to suspect your motives.


I'm not sure why you are getting so upset over this? I asked a question, made a comment, and now I'm a troll? I think I had a valid question and a valid comment.

Read my first post sir. I'm not going to ask a question if a know the answer. I don't have a hidden agenda here. I could care less what distribution you use. I'm just trying to get some opinions here and you are putting up your fists and sealing off the castle. Relax.

Last edited by Crashed_Again; 07-21-2005 at 07:25 AM.
 
Old 07-21-2005, 09:03 AM   #9
gargamel
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As someone already said, this subject has been extensively discussed from many if not all perspectives possible.

No, it's not a shame that Slackware has no dependancy checking package manager by default. But yes, you deserve to receive a qualified reply on a very valid question.

My suggestion: Search this forum for the following keywords:
RPM
apt-get
SuSE
dependency check

You'll end up with plethora of information, but in the end it's up to you to draw your own conclusion.


Your options are to use slapt-get or swaret with packages from LinuxPackages.net or RPM which is included with Slackware, but will work on its own, ignoring Slackware's "official" package database.
Or you might come to think that there are very good reasons for Slackware not using a tool like RPM by default, because there are some serious disadvantages involved when you do.

It will take you several hours of research, but it is a very fundamental question that will influence the way you use and manage your system for forever, so it's worth the effort.

You see, I won't tell you "use RPM" or "don't use swaret" or something. You must make your own decision, and it's a decision with serious consequences, so it's worth to take a little time to think abbout it and find out which approach suits your personal needs best.

gargamel
 
Old 07-21-2005, 06:53 PM   #10
Franklin
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Hey Crashed.

I understand your question and why you asked.
Moving from a distro that has apt etc. might make one think that getting along without a package manager might prove tedious. Moving from Suse to slack 2 years ago I felt the same way, but I really never missed it. I update my installs using rsync and upgradepkg and it is a bit longer than Yast Online Update, but it's not a deal breaker by any means

There really is no "official" package manager that checks dependencies, finds them, and installs them like apt-get. I've used swaret in the past and never had a problem. Those that do seem to not read the changelog and miss added, deleted, or newly renamed packages when they upgrade. It seems to be a "bug between the seat and the keyboard" as they say.

In my own experience with slack I have found that I really don't miss a package manager.
I just read the info on the homepage for whatever I'm installing and go get what I need.

Admittedly not so "automagical" but still not too bad.

Might I ask what you would be installing that needed such a a thing as a package manager?
Slackware comes with 90% of what I need (if you don't count freerock gnome) so I'm just curious what might be missing that a package manager would be required or helpful.

After 2 years with slack, the only thing that gave me a hard time was one of the dependencies for digikam. And that meant only 1 or 2 hours of looking - not all at one time.

My 2 cents
 
Old 07-21-2005, 07:56 PM   #11
Crashed_Again
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Quote:
Originally posted by Franklin
Hey Crashed.

I understand your question and why you asked.
Moving from a distro that has apt etc. might make one think that getting along without a package manager might prove tedious. Moving from Suse to slack 2 years ago I felt the same way, but I really never missed it. I update my installs using rsync and upgradepkg and it is a bit longer than Yast Online Update, but it's not a deal breaker by any means

There really is no "official" package manager that checks dependencies, finds them, and installs them like apt-get. I've used swaret in the past and never had a problem. Those that do seem to not read the changelog and miss added, deleted, or newly renamed packages when they upgrade. It seems to be a "bug between the seat and the keyboard" as they say.

In my own experience with slack I have found that I really don't miss a package manager.
I just read the info on the homepage for whatever I'm installing and go get what I need.

Admittedly not so "automagical" but still not too bad.

Might I ask what you would be installing that needed such a a thing as a package manager?
Slackware comes with 90% of what I need (if you don't count freerock gnome) so I'm just curious what might be missing that a package manager would be required or helpful.

After 2 years with slack, the only thing that gave me a hard time was one of the dependencies for digikam. And that meant only 1 or 2 hours of looking - not all at one time.

My 2 cents
Thanks Franklin. I was specifically thinking of things like apache, mysql, php, shorewall...a lot of basic server packages. I'm sure that these packages come with the install cd's but I was curious as to the process people use to upgrade/install/remove packages.

Thanks again.
 
Old 07-21-2005, 08:17 PM   #12
Franklin
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Quote:
Originally posted by Crashed_Again
Thanks Franklin. I was specifically thinking of things like apache, mysql, php, shorewall...a lot of basic server packages. I'm sure that these packages come with the install cd's but I was curious as to the process people use to upgrade/install/remove packages.

Thanks again.
Apache, MySQL, and PHP come with the distro - not shorewall.

Slackware-current contains:

mysql-4.1.12
php-4.4.0
apache-1.3.33

My (borrowed) "check_current" script for using rsync to maintain a local -current tree:

Code:
#!/bin/bash
#
# Check slackware-current
#

# Where to download from
# should script it so that the different sources can be listed and
# selected from the command line
#SOURCE="rsync://closeedge.net/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://ftp.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://ftp.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-9.0/"
#SOURCE="rsync://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://rsync.unspunproductions.com:8730/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://inferno.vbi.vt.edu/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://ftp.linuxslackers.org/slackware/slackware-current"  
#SOURCE="rsync://rsync.vbfx.com/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://transamrit.net/slackware/slackware-current"  
#SOURCE="rsync://rsync.unspunproductions.com:8730/slackware/slackware-current"  
#SOURCE="rsync://drazi.geo.uib.no/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://rsync.slackware.at/slackware/slackware-current" 
#SOURCE="rsync://slackware.ipal.net/slackware-current" 
#SOURCE="rsync://rsync.transamrit.net/slackware/slackware-current" 
#SOURCE="rsync://rsync.vbfx.com/slackware/slackware-current"  
#SOURCE="rsync://drazi.geo.uib.no/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://carroll.cac.psu.edu/slackware/slackware-current"
SOURCE="rsync://inferno.bioinformatics.vt.edu/slackware/slackware-current"
#SOURCE="rsync://slackware.mirrors.tds.net/slackware/slackware-current" 
# Change as necessary
OPTIONS="-avzP --delete --delete-after"
EXCLUDE="--exclude=source --exclude=pasture --exclude=kdei \
--exclude=zipslack"

#DEST="/home/current/linux-distros/slackware/slackware-9.0/"
#DEST="/mnt/hd/slackware" 
DEST="/mnt/common/slackware"

case "$1" in

 "-c" )
 echo "Checking..."
 /usr/bin/rsync $OPTIONS $EXCLUDE --dry-run $SOURCE $DEST
 ;;

 "-d" )
 echo "Downloading..."
 /usr/bin/rsync $OPTIONS $EXCLUDE $SOURCE $DEST
 ;;
 
 * )
 echo "Usage: `basename $0` {-c|-d}"
 echo -e "\t-c : Check for updates"
 echo -e "\t-d : Download updates"
 exit
 ;;

esac
Stick in /usr/local/bin and make it executable. (edit DEST of course)
check_current -c checks for updates
check_current -d downloads

use upgradepkg to update and you're good to go.

Last edited by Franklin; 07-21-2005 at 08:19 PM.
 
Old 07-21-2005, 10:24 PM   #13
gbonvehi
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Quote:
Originally posted by Crashed_Again
Thanks Franklin. I was specifically thinking of things like apache, mysql, php, shorewall...a lot of basic server packages. I'm sure that these packages come with the install cd's but I was curious as to the process people use to upgrade/install/remove packages.

Thanks again.
We basically all do the same (some hide it behind a program, but in the background the process is the same):
To install something new:
- Get the new package
- Run: installpkg pkgname

To upgrade:
- Get the new package
- Run: upgradepkg pkgname

To remove:
- Run: removepkg pkgname

Of course, there's people who likes making their own packages so they can then remove the software easily using removepkg. Those people do this:
- Get the source
- Compile it
- Run: checkinstall (or make the pkg "by hand")
- Then: installpkg pkgname

As you can see, there's some sort of package managament, the difference is that there's no "central" package managament.
 
Old 07-22-2005, 06:04 AM   #14
Crashed_Again
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Quote:
Originally posted by gbonvehi
We basically all do the same (some hide it behind a program, but in the background the process is the same):
To install something new:
- Get the new package
- Run: installpkg pkgname

To upgrade:
- Get the new package
- Run: upgradepkg pkgname

To remove:
- Run: removepkg pkgname

Of course, there's people who likes making their own packages so they can then remove the software easily using removepkg. Those people do this:
- Get the source
- Compile it
- Run: checkinstall (or make the pkg "by hand")
- Then: installpkg pkgname

As you can see, there's some sort of package managament, the difference is that there's no "central" package managament.
So if you use installpkg with out compiling the source you can not uninstall the package easily?
 
Old 07-22-2005, 06:12 AM   #15
GlowGlow
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Quote:
Originally posted by Crashed_Again
So if you use installpkg with out compiling the source you can not uninstall the package easily?
No. You can use checkinstall (or write a SlackBuild script) to generate a Slackware package of some program you compiled yourself. The advantage is that the package will be "tracked" via the Slackware package system, and can be uninstalled easily.

But I'd strongly recommend writing a SlackBuild script for anything installed with prefix=/usr, or at least install it in some directory in /tmp first, to check that it does not harm anything else.

Last edited by GlowGlow; 07-22-2005 at 06:13 AM.
 
  


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