There is a way to do automatic upgrades in Slackware 9.1(like apt-get)?
 

Hi, I´m a newbie in linux and these is my first post. I recently installed Slackware 9.1 and I want to now if there is a command to do automatic package upgrades, like apt-get in Debian.
(sorry for my english). Thanks.

Maxx_arg

Slackware has SWareT and Slapt-Get - my preference is for swaret.

You can also read the changelog from -current to know what's changed. Or if you want to stick with just 9.1 then you won't have many updates to download. Most of what's changing in 9.1 has something to do with security.

After this it's just a matter of upgradepkg or installpkg.

You could set up a cron job to run swaret or slapt-get at regular intervals.

No there isn't. The two apps listed above are 3rd party applicatioins and not officially part of slackware.Patrick for a brief time had swaret in an extras folder but he is not involved in the development of any of those projects. I think he still includes some program for updates in extras but once again it is not part of the actual Slackware distribution.

What I do is to maintain a mirror with rsync of the slackware-current and then upgrade my soft with upgradepkg. With the low cost of hard drive, I think that this solution is accessible to all.

So what if they are third party apps and do not come with Slackware. Swaret for one gets packages off the slack repository as well as its mirrors. They work.

From Swaret FAQ
http://www.swaret.org/?menu=faq

5.
Q: How can I Upgrade Slackware 8.1 or Higher
safely to Slackware Current?
A: Edit /etc/swaret.conf, set VERSION and ROOT to current.

A nice tool is "slackpkg" http://slackpkg.sourceforge.net
It is included in extra/

/jenso

But not well. Did you see the plethora of people complaining that it broke gnome? And why did it break gnome? Because it works? I think not...

I have used swaret many times - including to upgrade to current. Everything has always worked fine first time.

As with anything in Linux, computers in general really, your mileage may vary. So keep track of what you are doing.

I have never had any trouble with swaret. I works very well.

I have x11, kde, gnome, and most everything else (but some of the servers) installed and swaret keeps them all up to date with no troubles.

I forgot to mention:

This is for three machines: my notebook, wife's desktop, and my file server (which does have a more limited package selection).

Dude, don't know why some people insist on enforcing their "purist" views on the forum. Who cares if Swaret is 3rd party or not. It works great. Maybe they are overly proud of their ability to "do it all by them selves". Anyway, Swaret works great. I wouldn't fear it if you have a standard setup with no "odd" or "weird" hardware like dual processors or some weird driver that you had to hand build.

With Swaret, just takeyour time and always upgrade glibc first before you upgrade any other package. Also remembr to read the output messages and make sure that it found any missing libraries. Most Swaret problems are from people that hit upgrade and walk away. Upgrading can be tricky and often times additional packages need to be installed that were not part of the previos selections. Make sure you do a Sware --dep after any upgrade and find all missing libraries.

It is still more reliable than URPMI or Red-Hat updater, in my humble opinion.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me or im me. Im jbabbler on yahoo.


good luck.

I didn't say it worked perfectly ;) Nothing does. apt for Debian or RedHat don't either. Most of the time they do get the job done.

Dude, how is pointing out that Swaret isn't an official Slackware package enforcing my purist views..... Dude, you are free to use any app you want...... Did I say the questioner couldn't use it? Don't think so. If anything there seems to be a group of zealots that think swaret is the answer to every question. And the comment about exotic hardware.... well reread most of the posts about the swaret problems, don't think exotic hardware is the problem. I simply wanted to answer his question honestly. Apparently an honest answer isn't acceptable to some. Apt-get is an official Debian tool, unlike swaret's relationship to Slackware.