is it possible to get packages off another distro's cd's? i have SuSE, but i love my slackware way more, i just want to import (if possible) packages off those cd's,

is this possible?

thank you.

Yes, you most certainly can, provided you have the appropriate package extractor (ie. rpm's need unpacked with rpm, .deb need extracted with... apt-get I think? been a while, but you get my point.) With Slackware's 'package manager', pkgtool, you can upgrade and install with .tgz files. All this is is a gziped tar, which makes it much more portable because most distributions include gzip and tar by default.

thanks alot

that'll save me alot of effort and time... The joyz of *nix...

Indeed, happy hacking.

OK, first: tgzs are NOT the same thing as tar.gz . tar.gz's are compressed tarballs that contain SOURCE.

Tgzs are packaged BINARIES that contain install scripts. they are very different.


to install rpms in Slackware, you have to convert the rpm into a tgz. use the command: rpm2tgz filename.rpm , this will make a tgz, that you can (possibly) install.

Make sure you have the RPM "package" installed from the slackware disk though.

tgz's are not always binaries. .tgz and .tar.gz are both extracted using tar xzvf <filename>. Doesn't matter if it's source or binary.

(Here's an example, if you really need it.. taken from www.gzip.com, no less:
{
How can I extract a tar.gz or .tgz file?
Files with extension tar.gz or .tgz are tar files compressed with gzip. On Unix extract them with:
gunzip < file.tar.gz | tar xvf -
gunzip < file.tgz | tar xvf -
}
Same File whether it's source or binary.

Also, 'tar xzvf <filename>' does the same as 'gunzip < file.tar.gz | tar xvf -')

Also, you can use "rpm" in Slackware. You don't need to waste your time converting it to a tgz. That's what the rpm package is you speak of.

read up.

thanx all, i think mastering the install process of linux is a feat in itself, but i guess like anything once you know how its easy...


still learning... thankx

the RPM package is there to allow you to convert rpms. PKGTOOL has no way of controlling rpms.

yes, tgzs can be source or a package, but those two are very different. a source tgz will be untarred and installed like source, while a slack-pack tgz is left compressed and installed via the "installpkg" command. See, you said that slack-packs were just gziped source, when they are not.

For clarities sake:

From my original post:

I said gzipped tar, don't put words in my mouth.

you said the only thing it is is a gziped tar, when its a Gziped tarred BINARY, as opposed to a gzipped tarred source package. Yes, technically what you said wasnt wrong, but you were waay too vague,and misleading.

also:

See, thats misleading too. You cant install a slackware package in other non-tgz based distros. You may be able to extract the binaries, and install it yourself by hand, but that might not work anyway. Slack-packs are not really portable, thats my point. They are just basic (ie. no dependancy checking)

I'll expand that.

Makes it much more portable than an RPM, much more portable than a .DEB, much more portable than a .bz2, see the trend forming? Would you disagree that most distributions, if not all that you yourself have *ever* encountered, have been installed with gzip and tar?

I said nothing of source or binary. A gzipped tar is a gzipped tar no matter how you cut it. ie. file.tar.gz == file.tgz;

I do understand the point you're trying to make about the source and binary archives, but it's not correct. I provided proof of this from gzip's own webpage.

In many cases vendors will provide their source in a .tar.gz, and the binary in a .tgz slackware package, for example, but either way, it's a gzipped tar archive, whether it's binary or source.

This is getting redundant. Please email me if you have other concerns. If I'm wrong and you have *proof*, I'd love to hear it. But I don't think it gets more authoratative than the vendor in question's webpage.

Excellent!

This exchange has answered my question, before I asked it - 'what's the deal with .tgz's and tarred compressed files?' - along with providing more familiarization with the slack method of package installation.

Thanks!

-K

An excellent central source for Slack packages is: www.linuxpackages.net -- J.W.