I use rsync to mirror the repositories I'm interested in locally (either fully or partially) -- I've always thought slackware works best when you keep a copy of all the packages locally, and IMO it's a couple of GB well spent.

Then I use a tool of my own devising (a bash script called 'slacklist') that will look at a list of local directories, find the package files in there and compare them to what is installed. That script generates a list of packages to be either installed or removed.

Here's an example of it in action:
(I don't use these packages from slackware preferring alternatives which is why they show up as uninstalled.

Then I have another script I named 'slackup' which uses this tool to find what updates to do and apply them.

Whenever I've talked about this in the past I've not had that much interest expressed by others -- I'm guessing people don't like the idea of having all the packages locally stored and prefer the way slackpkg does things -- but I've used this to follow 'current' for years and it's served me well.

No offence intended to it's author but I've never liked slackpkg, though many do.
Each to their own I guess.

Well, a lot are listed among the links provided by David Spencer.

Personally I exclusively use slapt-get and gslapt from Jason Woodward and contributors, that I ship in Slint (Slackware derivative). We ship a version borrowed to George Vlahavas and also used in Salix that uses spkg as back-end.

In my opinion slapt-get is by far the best tool: simple to use, very reliable, mature, flexible.

It is the recommended tool by Salix, Slackel and Slint among Slackware spin-off and can also be used in Zenwalk. It is certainly useful for Slackware users as well if they use packages coming from third-party repositories.

It could be added to David's links as well as netpkg and its GUI xnetpkg written by Jean-Philippe Guillemin for Zenwalk[1] and depfinder from George Vlahavas.

Well, the best advice for newbies is "don't do that!"

This being said the configuration file of slapt-get, /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc, allows to include sources for several repositories with 4 levels of priority, and optional dependency handling, if the repository provides the necessary information in its PACKAGES.TXT file.

However, handling the issues that can arise using several third-party repositories can in no way be done by a tool: it always requires manual intervention from a knowledgeable enough user.

I won't elaborate here, but will write an article on that for Slint users in the coming days, that I hope will be more generally useful.

[1]In the z series of packages.

3 members found this post helpful.

Used slapt-get and gslapt tools a lot, very simple and effective. Used official slackpkg too, especially liked the export template feature.
But I'm used to simple bash+wget+pkgtools and keeping a local copy of patches, I can easily rollback and test a patch this way.
Haven't used other packaging tools yet.

@Didier:
I'm reading the SBo lists archive, but never send any email, regarding this message, you may need:
Not sure if that helps, and sorry for derailing the thread.

Slackpkg+ wasn't developed by Eric, however, he and phenixia2003 are listed as contributors. It was developed by zerouno. I think Eric's post on his blog about configuring slackpkg+ is probably why some attribute him to be the author of the program itself.

http://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+/src/README

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Honestly I got to hate it, when I saw the ++, I knew it was some C++ shit.

I am not saying your project is bad but in this time and age, languages like rust and go are emerging, providing good programming principles and framework unlike c++. They have been designed to reduce bugs and bad programming practices. Have a look at that guy, Lennart Poettering, he tried to do good things but it was against the Unix philosophy, he has a long list of haters, including me.

If you were to start a new packing tool, I would like to see new features such as parallel processing and advanced package selection. Propose an API, so that tools in different languages can be built and extended.

I have seen your code, there are no comments. Is it available in github? There is a clear lack of modularity in your code, this makes me unwilling to help you!

Good luck vijay , learn new things and listen to people well and read between the lines too.

Cheers Tiger

2 members found this post helpful.

He said it was in the early stages of development. Cut him some "slack." And please, let's not have a programming language war.

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Hi,

I'm here to worry you.
This shit, but mostly without ++, is powering the car you drive, the plane you fly on and the train you might go by.
The washing machine, microwave oven, your electric tooth brush (well, that would be actually most probably assembly, since 4-bit architectures are probably rarely programmed in C).
And to worry you even more, C is going to be used for many years to come.

--
Best regards,
Andrzej Telszewski

3 members found this post helpful.

Not to mention, without the ++, the Kernel you drive

-- kjh

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you for that info

Thank a lot, for your reply.

The link and information you people provided is really helpful.

@jheengut
Not exist on github. In future I will try for it.

I think , I expressed myself clearly, I'm not asking for a war.

1 members found this post helpful.

I understand the point, but time has proved otherwise. When performance is not an issue C++ is okay but for something as to develop a package management tool, there are better frameworks to built on.

Secondly , I never criticized C , just C++.

Well go and tell that to linus, :-)

c++ VS linus

Linus-torvalds-right-about-c-being-so-wrong

There was a time when I wanted to write a tool that is common across all platforms, its doable but I have not been innovative enough.
Going through binary is good since the tool can be used very early on.

If you want something to "reduce bugs and bad programming practices," C++ is already better than C. And Poettering is a C programmer, so that part of your post is nonsensical. In short, your post was flaming and devoid of any useful content. We are all dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

1 members found this post helpful.