enorbet, slackpkg is part of the official Slackware package set. Yes, it can clean up a partially corrupt installaion, within limits. It's just a script to the exact same standard pkgtools. Sure, it can goof up sometimes, but it is still handy for the "blacklist", "search", "install-templeate" and "clean-sytem", etc functionality. I use it to track -current and, with slackpkg+, my own repo across multiple systems and VMs via NFS.
To recover a system that is basically ok , If I do not want to PXE boot and reinstall everything, this sequence works reasonably well, in either single or multiuser mode, and after updating settings in /etc/slackpkg/mirrors (reinstall pkgtools and slackpkg...to make sure these scripts are ok):
Code:
$ slackpkg update
$ slackpkg clean-system #remove 3rd party packages that may overlap
$ slackpkg reinstall *.t?z #go get coffee
$ slackpkg install-new
$ slackpkg upgrade-all
$ slackpkg clean-system
This usually works ok, and if not, I use Tonus' suggestion above for UPGRADE.txt using the original DVD set, then upgradepkg patches/*.t?z. Alternatively, after you backup /home (mine is on a separate partition) and whatever customization are in /etc (you ARE keeping a log, aren't you?). If you are running a remote server, you should then also be a bit more conservative in server management so that you don't corrupt the server in the first place....
-Just my 2 cents.
