The Ultimate "When Will The Next Slackware Release Arrive" MegaThread

Sonneteer · 10-02-2006, 01:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oneminizut

Is dropline or freerock supposed to be released at the same time as Slack 11? Jut wondering if anyone knew.

Freerock-unstable is currently built on Slackware-current. Once Slack 11 is official, I expect frg-unstable would become frg-current shortly thereafter. How long after that until a stable freerock 2.16.x, though, I wouldn't know.

zetabill · 10-02-2006, 01:36 AM

Good idea Old_Fogie...

Do you think it'd be possible to use `mirror-slackware-current.sh -o NONE` as well? Since it's rsyncing the tree anyway... once 11 comes out I should be able to use the "-r 11.0" option instead of "-o NONE" and change the slackware-current directory to slackware-11.0 and add the slackware-11.0-iso directory to finish, right? Though much more sophisticated it seems as if the mirror-slackware-current.sh script essentially accomplishes the same thing as rsync_current.sh with the added benefit of making ISOs.

I suppose the whole changelog comparison would be the tie-up but I figured I would ask the experts.

Thanks ahead of time.

Old_Fogie · 10-02-2006, 02:32 AM

I think that there is a problem for me doing this. My old pc's cannot read a cd-rw's.

Which is probably fine, as the one pc that I do have that can read a cd/rw is going to get slackware in qemu initially. That will probably put me out a few weeks after 11.0 comes out that I make packages, etc for myself and actually move over. By that time, I guess I just download iso cd1 for slack11 and do an nfs install on those old pc's. That seems to work out better for that old hardware anyway.

I'm not sure about the mirror vs rysn bill, but it's an interesting question, hopefully someone has some input on that.

Old_Fogie · 10-02-2006, 02:32 AM

I think that there is a problem for me doing this. My old pc's cannot read a cd-rw's.

Which is probably fine, as the one pc that I do have that can read a cd/rw is going to get slackware in qemu initially. That will probably put me out a few weeks after 11.0 comes out that I make packages, etc for myself and actually move over. By that time, I guess I just download iso cd1 for slack11 and do an nfs install on those old pc's. That seems to work out better for that old hardware anyway.

I'm not sure about the mirror vs rysn bill, but it's an interesting question, hopefully someone has some input on that.

Old_Fogie · 10-02-2006, 02:35 AM

ugh, dsl dropped out thunderstorms here sorry for double post

titopoquito · 10-02-2006, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old_Fogie

So let me see if I get this straight.

[...snip...]

The when 11.0 is released I should edit the "rsync_current.sh" file at the part that says:

VERSION=${VERSION:-current}

To read

VERSION=${VERSION:11.0} # I add "11.0" here and remove the "-" sign too correct?

I have another version of this file for rsyncing, but I think it should be "-11.0" INCLUDING the "-" sign, if it was given for current then 11.0 as well. Else rsync would IMHO possibly delete your whole rsync tree just because of the missing "-"

Alien Bob · 10-02-2006, 03:49 AM

The ":-" bit is actually a piece of shell syntax, so better not mess with that.

You can either change the string "current" to "11.0", or you use this commandline to rsync Slackware 11.0 :

Code:

VERSION=11.0 ./rsync_current.sh

This way, the definition of the VERSION variable on the commandline overrides the value that is set inside the script, so you don't have to edit the script.

The mirror-slackware-current.sh is a lot more sophisticated, and

Code:

./mirror-slackware-current.sh -r 11.0 -o NONE

will do the exact same thing (mirror Slackware 11.0 without making any ISO images).

Eric

Old_Fogie · 10-02-2006, 04:13 AM

I'm sorry I'm so feeble minded here, and beating this topic to death

.

I now have an rsync'd current here.

Now seeing Alien Bob's post made me realize that I should use the mirror script when 11 is out to make "iso" so that's good, takes away my issue of cd-rw's.

So pulling all of this together now in my brain here, when slack 11 is released I'm going to do the following:

edit my rsync_current.sh like so:
VERSION=${VERSION:-current}
to
VERSION=${VERSION:-11.0}
then run the rsync_current.sh (a.k.a 11.0 now) script to pull down any files I need.
Probably a good idea to rename it to rsync_slackware_11.sh for future use.

Then I will edit my mirror-slackware-current.sh like so:
edit this line: SLACKROOTDIR="/home/ftp/pub/Linux/Slackware"
to be SLACKROOTDIR="/data/linux/hdb5-linux-data"

Because I have my "TOPDIR="/data/linux/hdb5-linux-data" in my rsync_current.sh saving all of it's files to my hard drive there.

Then just run the mirror-slackware-current.sh and it'll make iso's of what I got. Now the mirror-slackware-current.sh see's where I have my files already on my hard drive and goes on to check the logs, then makes cd's for me.

Sound right?

Alien Bob · 10-02-2006, 05:33 AM

Sounds right.

Just keep in mind that you will be getting "inofficial" Slackware CDROMs this way. The official ISO images will not contain exactly the same directory layout (although you'll ultimately install the exact same Slackware 110.0 whatever ISO images you use).

In fact you might have already guessed - based on the fact that officially mastered CD's are going to be smaller (650MB) than my ISO's maximum allowed size of 703MB, and the fact that I leave out the KDEI series - that the number of official Slackware 11.0 install CD's is not going to be 2 at all...

Eric

AtomicAmish · 10-02-2006, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien Bob

Sounds right.
..Slackware 110.0 ..
Eric

It only feels like that's the version we should be on by now.

Z038 · 10-02-2006, 07:34 AM

The writer of the Slackware blurb on DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 170, 25 September 2006 seems to have mastered the art of the backhanded compliment quite well. He manages to pinpoint some of the primary virtues of Slackware while at the same time putting it down as the distribution for conservative old dogs who can't be bothered to learn new tricks.

The release candidate "time to release" chart is interesting, though.

BTW, I think this is really DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 171, 02 October 2006, but the page you are directed to at the link above says it is Issue 170.

AtomicAmish · 10-02-2006, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Z038

The writer of the Slackware blurb on DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 170, 25 September 2006 seems to have mastered the art of the backhanded compliment quite well. He manages to pinpoint some of the primary virtues of Slackware while at the same time putting it down as the distribution for conservative old dogs who can't be bothered to learn new tricks.

The release candidate "time to release" chart is interesting, though.

With the exception of "those old UNIX hands who do not care for learning new technologies," that seems like a fairly balanced view of Slackware. Their chart does beg the question of what was different with 11.0, but I want PV to take all the time he needs. With a child, his priorities are probably rightfully elsewhere.

drkstr · 10-02-2006, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voltar

What I did so far...

PHP Code:



#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
## slackcheck-rss 0.3 Beta
## By David Johns <webmaster AT fsckoff DOT org>
##########
## Based on slackcheck-1.4 
## By Aaron Miller <armantic101 AT gmail DOT com>
##########
## Prerequisites:
##      PHP <= 5.0.0 (http://www.php.net/downloads.php)
##      wget (http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/)
####################

//  Variables (Oh! How they vary...)
  // Location of the changelog, we'll use the main Slackware server since it'll be updated first.
  $Changelog = 'ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/ChangeLog.txt';
  // Output location for the .rss file. 
  $RSSfile = '/home/fsckoff/public_html/projects/slackcheck-rss/slackcheck.rss';

// Fetch the changelog from the Slackware server (Only if updated).
  exec("wget -N -O /tmp/Changelog.new $Changelog");

// Enter file contents into respective variables.
  $OldLog = file_get_contents('/tmp/Changelog.old');
  $NewLog = file_get_contents('/tmp/Changelog.new');

// Compare files.
  if( $OldLog != $NewLog ){
    // Update file to check against.
    file_put_contents('/tmp/Changelog.old', $NewLog);
    // Update RSS feed.
    $hfCL = fopen('/tmp/Changelog.new', 'r');
    // Get the date from the changelog.
    $Date = fgets($hfCL);
    // Close file :-o
    fclose($hfCL);
    // Define and put the XML into the $RSS variable.
    $RSS = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>'."\n".
           '<rss version="2.0">'."\n".
           '<channel>'."\n". 
           '<title>slackcheck-rss 0.3</title>'."\n".
           '<link>http://www.fsckoff.org/</link>'."\n".
           '<description>Slackware-current Changelog Monitor</description>'."\n".
           '<language>en-us</language>'."\n".
           '<lastBuildDate>Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:35:26 GMT</lastBuildDate>'."\n".
           '<generator>slackcheck-rss 0.3 (PHP)</generator>'."\n".
           '<managingEditor>webmaster@fsckoff.org</managingEditor>'."\n".
           '<webMaster>webmaster@fsckoff.org</webMaster>'."\n".
           '<item>'."\n".
           '<title>Slackware-current Changelog last updated on: '.trim($Date).'</title>'."\n".
           '<link>ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/ChangeLog.txt</link>'."\n".
           '<guid>ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/ChangeLog.txt</guid>'."\n".
           '<description>Click the link to view the current Slackware-current Changelog</description>'."\n".
           '</item>'."\n".
           '</channel>'."\n".
           '</rss>';     
    // Put XML ($RSS) into RSS file ($RSSfile).
    file_put_contents($RSSfile, $RSS);
}
// That's all folks :-)
?>

RSS feed is at: http://www.fsckoff.org/projects/slac...slackcheck.rss
All source and changelogs (current & future) is/will be at: http://www.fsckoff.org/projects/slackcheck-rss/

Hey Voltar, thank you for you additions. Your version is a lot cleaner looking. I suppose my coding style is a little archaic.

There were a couple things I was hoping to go into my own version but haven't had the time to mess around with it since I've been busy with a couple on going projects. Maybe you would like to mess around with it instead?

First, comparing the entire files as strings is somewhat unnecessarily memory intensive. Technically, we should only need to compare the first line of the files for change. You could even scrap downloading the entire file and just fopen the changelog remotely and read in the first line and store it to compare against future checks.

Also, if the file fails to download, you will get an empty sting (which is different when compared against the original), and will over write the .old as an updated chagelog. An easy fix for this is to preg_match anything that isn't wite space ( "/\S+/" ) and fail the check if it returns an empty string.

If you ever get around to updating it let us know. And I'm not sure if you realized this or not, but I didn't publish the code under any licence, it's just part of the public domain. You can do whatever you want with it without having to site me as the original author (no sense making the code un needlessly longer

) FOr all intensive purposes, this is your project now. Keep us posted though!

regards,
...drkstr

linuxxr · 10-02-2006, 08:45 PM

November 1st is as good a guess as any,,,,,11.1.06 anyways im current an an
iso will be ready soon enough,,this distro to remain solid HAS to be stable right????? its the Slackware plan an thats the way i want it. its why we are here

Old_Fogie · 10-02-2006, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxxr

November 1st is as good a guess as any,,,,,11.1.06 anyways im current an an
iso will be ready soon enough,,this distro to remain solid HAS to be stable right????? its the Slackware plan an thats the way i want it. its why we are here

I don't know, 11 01 06 could mean slack 11 release candidate "06" too