Hi all,

Three questions about updating:

1. Which program is better to update and take care of dependencies, swaret, slackpkg, or slapt-get (or others)?

2. If I have a fresh full install of Slackware 12.0, which repository should I point to, the one with Slackware 12.0 or the one with "current"?

3. Is Synaptic suitable to find and install new programs in Slackware?

I've checked the postings but couldn't find a satisfactory answer (to me), and the manual, "Slackbook 2.0" is silent on this (couldn't find anything on full online updates and on updating programs like the above).

Thanks for the answers!

2. It depends. If you want a stable system, you should stick with 12.0. But if you want to have the bleeding edge Slackware packages, then you might want to stick with Current, but for Current, it's not started yet. Maybe in one or two months from now.

Thanks, willysr,

But let me get this straight: 12.0 keeps the original programs as they are, or does it periodically update them?

If it does keep the originals, what would be the use of pointing to that repository; if it does update them, then what would be the difference between 12.0 and current?

Cheers!

current is the developmental branch and will break things at times, updates to slackware 12 will be put in 12.0/patches

The original programs are periodically updated with security fixes. For example you can now update Fire Fox, Thunderbird and Seamonkey. These new packages are located in the patches directory at the Slackware site.

http://www.slackware.com/getslack/


There are many mirrors to choose from. For example.

ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/...tches/packages

You have to realize that staying "current" has a different meaning when you run a stable release as opposed to running slackware-current.

A stable release like 12.0 will not get new packages or new versions of packages. What it will get after release, is patches to the packages where bugs have to be fixed. These patches will be published into the /patches directory of the Slackware tree (available on any mirror). By applying these patches as they are released, you stay "current" with the release.

The Slackware 'current' release is the development tree, where work is done towards a new stable release of Slackware. In slackware-current, new packages may get added, deprecated packages may disappear suddenly, and existing packages may be upgraded to their most recent version.

Staying "current" with slackware-current means that you will be upgrading packages often, like one or more per week if there is active development. It also means that if a bug is introduced to the -current tree, you are supposed to know how to fix it yourself, or report the bug to 'Slackware, Inc.' or wait for someone else to fix the bug. This means that if you are "just" an end user that needs a working computer and who does not want to tinker with his Slackware installation, you are much better of with a stable release. A slackware-current installation may be nonfunctional for days if you're unlucky and not familiar with how to debug your system.

A script that I wrote and which checks for patches for the stable releases (the ) and downloads any that are available is here: http://www.slackware.com/~alien/tool...are_patches.sh

If you add this line to your (or your root's) crontab, it will look for updates every night at 06:53 and download new patches - the example crontab line below checks Slackware 12.0 patches but you can change the "-r 12.0" to any other Slackware release number - and send your account an email with the results:

- assuming that you downloaded the script to /usr/local/bin and made it executable by running

This is the kind of email that you'll get (example for Slackware 11):

Eric

Thanks a lot, guys!

Just pointed slackpkg to a 12.0 mirror, did an upgrade-all, and got new updates already, like firefox and thunderbird 2.0.0.5, as you mentioned.

That was an easy, clean, and no-nonsense process!

Cheers for splendid help!