slackpkg option for dependencies
 

I was just thinking about dependency resolution whilst I was browsing around sbopkg and I thought if I can type

$ slackpkg info <packagename>

for a little read up, it would be quite handy to type

$ slackpkg requires <packagename>

to get a list of dependencies.

I realise of course there are various ways to get this information anyway but this would be a nice addition.

I think it would be too much extra work.

Slackware assumes that you do a full installation, so no need for dependency checking as all the hard dep has been installed in your system

The slackpkg tool is for administering the official portion of your Slackware install. All dependencies are met within the recommended full install. I do not see a use case.

[edit]Too slow![/edit]

To do that, one would need that dependencies be recorded in the packages' database (/var/log/packages), but this is not the case.

I forgot about the old slackware 'if you don't do a full install you're on your own' and I have a fairly basic install here. I'm sure a lot of people these days though skip kde* on install and just run with xfce or if you were maybe resurrecting an old pc or laptop and wanted to run with just fluxbox or something. Maybe it would help but I'm not a coder so maybe it is too difficult or too much work which is fair enough and I understand that.

Not sure how sbopkg do it, obviously it's a lot different to slackpkg and running from different packages in a different repository, but if I do:

sbopkg -s <packagename>

it's all there.

Sbopkg does it by using sqg
http://slackblogs.blogspot.com/2014/...es-easily.html

but sqg must be initialized first or after a new public update by SBo team

There's metadata associated with each slackbuild that has that information in it. It's the package_name.info file, which contains something like (taking 14.1's libvirt SlackBuild as an example):
If you really want that functionality, then you should consider using slapt-get as well as one of the slapt-get repositories where someone's done that analysis for a standard slackware distribution. Like this one (look at the contents of PACKAGES.TXT at the link).

Alternative: Just use a tool specifically written to show dependencies for Slackware packages: https://bitbucket.org/a4z/sbbdep/wiki/Home

That will work in a majority of the cases (probably a vast majority of them).

If you need something that isn't binary from another package, you're pretty much stuck with someone documenting that fact in some location that a program can read and understand. Data files for games and python/perl/scheme/ruby/whatever scripts come to mind.

According to Matteo Rossini (zerouno, on Alien BOB's blog), the following works with some third party repositories using slackpkg+:

Also, there is slackyd, though I haven't tested it.

Why not follow the recommended procedure? Why not install KDE even if you plan to use Xfce as your WM? What do you hope to gain by a basic install except hard drive space?

That works nicely, thanks.

I'll certainly look in to slackpkg+, looks interesting, thanks.

slackyd was almost there but the last lines of the info were:

> Package conflict with: not available.
> Packages suggest: not available.
> Packages required: not available.

for whichever package I queried.

I didn't want to install any of it that was all, I'm running twm on an old laptop and it does me just fine that way. Besides, I followed the recommended procedure on the family computer where we all use xfce and we have menus cluttered with kthis and kthat. If I could be bothered I would go in and edit all the desktop files to nodisplay but it would have been a lot easier to just deselect kde* on install which I'm sure a lot of people do.

As I said, I realise that generally support on here assumes a full install and I readily accept that, I'm not asking for help with a system problem, I was just querying something about the functionality of slackpkg really.

That's a good one too, I could simply download and grep PACKAGES.TXT for whatever I was interested in. Thanks.

Thanks for your considered reply. I'm always interested in how people choose to continue to use old machines effectively. I'm also fond of Xfce but at least half the apps I use in it are "k-something".

For my oldest laptop I'm still using Slackware 12.2 w/ KDE 3.5 but at some point I assume that will become limiting. Hopefully that will coincide with new laptop time :D

Depends on how you define limiting. Slackware 12.2 was EOLed on 2013-12-09, so you are already limited to not getting security updates.

Actually, to be completely honest, with 2 hardware firewalls and iptables on each box plus rkhunter run at routine intervals, I don't worry about security updates much on home boxes. This is an ever-changing landscape so maybe one day I will have to increase my security habits at home.

For now though, the limitations are minimal since internally it does all I need it to do. It just becomes increasingly a standalone box because everything is just faster and more powerful on my main box. Whether intranet or usb device, there is just very little need to connect it to the outside world.

Also as phones become more powerful, laptops for me become less useful. I tend to now choose either phone or desktop. I'm nearly at the point where the only reason I keep it is because it would just hurt to toss out a working machine.... that and the nagging notion that the following week I would need it LOL.

Slackware dependencies:
http://download.salixos.org/x86_64/s...1/PACKAGES.TXT