SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
15.1 should be a re-release of 15.0 with everything exactly the same. Because operating systems are not something that need to constantly change and grow
Please include option (or even, gasp, default) for slackpkg to log all changes which it makes
As slackpkg uses the standard Slackware package tools, then by default all logging goes to /var/log/packages (now symlinked to /var/lib/pkgtools/packages) and directories under /var/log/pkgtools (removed_packages and removed_scripts). These are easily reviewed with 'ls -lt /var/log/packages/ | less' and 'ls -lt /var/log/pkgtools/removed_packages | less'
... easily reviewed with 'ls -lt /var/log/packages/ | less' and 'ls -lt /var/log/pkgtools/removed_packages | less'
I agree those commands are better than nothing, but they are no more than lists of packages - no dates, no indication of what happened to them, no mention of what versions are affected, no indication of the command being run.
Here are some selected snippets from my pacman.log, illustrating all the various kinds of information recorded there (not all from the same run) :
That kind of detailed information is (ideally) what I would like to see in /var/log/slackpkg.log; personally I find it invaluable, especially when, occasionally, things break, (for the same reasons as when upgrading a slackware -current).
I agree those commands are better than nothing, but they are no more than lists of packages - no dates, no indication of what happened to them, no mention of what versions are affected, no indication of the command being run.
Here are some selected snippets from my pacman.log, illustrating all the various kinds of information recorded there (not all from the same run) :
That kind of detailed information is (ideally) what I would like to see in /var/log/slackpkg.log; personally I find it invaluable, especially when, occasionally, things break, (for the same reasons as when upgrading a slackware -current).
Cheers, John Lumby
I forgot that log was a feature of slackpkg+ as I always install it. However it's not something I normally look at as there is more detailed information under /var/log/pkgtools/ and /var/lib/pkgtools. Slackpkg is mostly a convenient wrapper around the pkgtools so imho it would be somewhat redundant to do what the pkgtools already provide. (the pkgtools do date stamp everything)
In my experience I've also found most slackpkg specific errors/issues to be immediately obvious as I run and watch the output manually. If I didn't, I would do as the last poster in that link you provided did.
edit: Your first statement in the above post is incorrect as what is logged by pkgtools does specify everything you mentioned.
Additionally if you use the 'cat' command on one of the files in /var/lib/pkgtools, they double as individual log files for each version of each package. Including description, what scripts are executed (doinst.sh and douninst.sh), and a list of files installed. pkgtools logs what packages are installed, uninstalled, upgraded, reinstalled, and removed. The stuff in /var/log/packages is a symlink to /var/lib/pkgtools.
So you see, all the information is already there, tucked away, neatly and out of the user's way. The information is actually more accessible than other distributions because all you need is the ability to read text. There are no fancy commands with unnecessary flags. No need to duplicate what is already implemented. K.I.S.S.
You are asking for slackpkg to duplicate system log files and it's not really needed.
Last edited by mralk3; 01-27-2022 at 05:50 PM.
Reason: dir path
I agree those commands are better than nothing, but they are no more than lists of packages - no dates, no indication of what happened to them, no mention of what versions are affected, no indication of the command being run.
Processing of the lists is up the user. Perhaps this is more what you want.
Code:
#!/bin/bash
# Script to match installed packages with last removed package
pkgname="$1"
pushd /var/log/removed_packages/ > /dev/null
a=( $(ls -t $pkgname*) )
popd > /dev/null
pushd /var/log/packages/ > /dev/null
c=( $(ls $pkgname*) )
popd > /dev/null
for p in "${c[@]}"; do
s="${p%-*-*-*}-[0-9]"
match=1
for r in "${a[@]}"; do
[[ $r =~ $s ]] && match=0 && echo "$r --> $p" && break
done
[[ $match == 1 ]] && echo "No removed package matches $p"
done
Thanks to all who pointed out that what I am looking for is
Quote:
all the information is already there, tucked away, neatly and out of the user's way.
. And for the bits of shellscript for presenting it. The only aspect of this that I think is still not covered is a sequence of events in chronological order - i.e. a (single) log. And I guess, since there are timestamps, a different script could order all the changes into a single log.
I will try using all these ways of gathering the information and see how I fare. I expect it will work just fine for me. But some newcomer to Slackware used to being able to see a true (single) installer log and not knowing all these tricks might still be lost.
Thanks to all who pointed out that what I am looking for is . And for the bits of shellscript for presenting it. The only aspect of this that I think is still not covered is a sequence of events in chronological order - i.e. a (single) log. And I guess, since there are timestamps, a different script could order all the changes into a single log.
I will try using all these ways of gathering the information and see how I fare. I expect it will work just fine for me. But some newcomer to Slackware used to being able to see a true (single) installer log and not knowing all these tricks might still be lost.
Cheers, John Lumby
You should try installing the slackpkg+ plugin which in addition to the log file you're looking for also adds the ability to add other repos. https://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+.html
For example here's a snippet from /var/lib/slackpkg/install.log :
Well well lads, here we go, and here I open my silly mouth too.
So, what do you guys feel about VLC? For me it is the most overall solid media player, and I use it as a fallback player myself. I've heard it is a real PITA to compile, so it would be a nice favour of BDFL to do it for me (us).
Well well lads, here we go, and here I open my silly mouth too.
So, what do you guys feel about VLC? For me it is the most overall solid media player, and I use it as a fallback player myself. I've heard it is a real PITA to compile, so it would be a nice favour of BDFL to do it for me (us).
Maybe something for 15.1 testing?
You find something that is a PITA to compile and then you ask our BDFL to do that for you? Is your goal to further increase the time between releases even more?
You can get a VLC package from Alien BOB's repository. With all the libraries it needs already built into the package. Let him do the work rather than Patrick.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
