Third-party Repositories
 

Hi everyone:

First of all, I've already done some searches before this question.

For example, there has been a thread discussing which of the third-party repositories is most popular, but I didn't see concurs.

Anyway, it seems to me that linuxpackages.net is the most popular third-party repository. And my question is how to use it with slapt-get?

I know from
http://www.linuxpackages.net/mirrors.php

If I am to use the "NYI New York Internet" mirror, I would set
Slapt-get to
SOURCE=http://www2.linuxpackages.net/packages/Slackware-xx/

But when it comes to practice, I have the following questions.

- Does linuxpackages.net contains official packages as well?

- If not, do you recommend VectorLinux's repository? Does it have more packages than linuxpackages.net?

- Will setting above find all packages from linuxpackages.net for me? Or it is only for the very version of Slackware that I choose?

- If I can't find the package that I want in Slackware-12.1, will packages from Slackware-12.0 be OK for me?

- If it is OK, how can I make slapt-get search Slackware-12.1 by default then fall back to Slackware-12.0 when not found?

- more on package finding, while doing random checking of the available packages, the first two packages from http://www.linuxpackages.net/packages.php, FFmpeg & Firebird, I don't see them in http://www2.linuxpackages.net/packag...1/PACKAGES.TXT

In this case, would slapt-get search find those 2 packages for me?
If not, what should I do?

All in all, what's the best practice using third-party repositories?

Thanks a lot

xpt

PS. coming from Debian, I'm more a use-a-package guy than build-my-own-package guy.

I respect your decision to build your own packages, but ...

Use http://slackbuilds.org , better to build them on your own box then use a build from someone else. Be sure to read the FAQ @ slackbuilds.

slacky.eu is a more reliable source than linuxpackages.net in my opinion. I know nothing about slapt-get or slackpkg, so I can't be more help than that -- I will just say that linuxpackages.net has some poorly-built packages with questionable dependencies that have the possibility to bork your system. Although there ARE some reputable packagers at linuxpackages.net, you would have to find out which ones are reputable and only use their packages -- and that's a lot of work, and not very convenient when using slapt-get. slacky.eu has a large repository with well-built packages that all include a SlackBuild so you can see how they built it or compile it yourself using their SlackBuild, if you want.

I trust slackbuilds.org, Alien Bob's repository (http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/) and rworkman's repository (http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/) 100%, and slacky.eu 50% (though I'm a pessimist and I always just use the SlackBuilds from slacky.eu and not their pre-built packages). If you want huge repositories with every package you could possibly want, Slackware isn't the distro for you -- some packages won't be available anywhere and will need to be compiled (by you) from source. That being said, with the nice repositories listed above, that would be an exception instead of a rule, but just be warned.

thanks a lot T3slider, that's really insightful.

anyone else has more experience with slapt-get & third-party repositories?

thx

sfxpt:

I also just came from Debian a few months ago. The big reason I came to slack is because I have to have a system that works after a package install. And doesn't break something else during a package install. And is reversible after a bad package install. If you'll just take the time to learn use SlackBuilds & src2pkg, I think you'll be rewarded with just about the most stable system available.

The only ready made packages that I will use is rworkman's, Alien Bob's, & sometimes slacky.eu.

It only takes a little while to "roll yer own", and you'll get better results.