Hi everybody, back with another noob question . Is it okay to overwrite dependencies and packages that are already installed over and over again without repercussions with sbopkg or is there a way to implement the command "upgradepkg --install-new" into the process if necessary?

I am not really about what you've asked and about the answer but I think there is no problem

I mean for instance, lets say I install wine through sbopkg using sqg to handle the queuing automatically, but then later I install something through sbopkg that has wine as a dependency and it re-installs it over again, could this potentially break an installed package or something?

I don't think so. Why would that happen?

Well like I said "another noob question" but I was thinking perhaps a config file or such things might be overwritten. But thanks for the answer.

I don't think that sbopkg can cause dependencies problem per se, as it just helps you automate some process you could otherwise perform manually.

But a problem could occur if a package built using a slackbuild provided @ slackbuids.org would replace, say, a shared library shipped in a genuine Slackware package with another version, if for instance that version is not compatible (as a dependency) with another program, and that's possibly one of the reasons admins @ slackbuilds.org usually don't accept to ship other versions of software already included in Slackware.

This is due to the way installpkg and upgradepkg work: they just install what's in the package but don't check if that overwrites a file already installed (but before removing a file instead, the Slackware tools do check that it be not included in another installed package).

Some big software (glibc comes to mind) are, for practical reasons, split in several packages that can include the same file, but that doesn't hurt as long as the duplicated file is identical in all packages that ship it.

Instead, aaa_elflib gathers some older versions of libraries also shipped in other packages, just to minimize dependencies. That doesn't hurt as long it is always installed first, so the newer version will overwrite the older one, not the other way round. That's also why you're advised to never reinstall it, as that would replace newer versions by older ones.

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if you don't *need* to rebuild something that you have already built through sbopkg, when you launch it again you can pass it the option -k that makes it skip the already built stuff that it founds in the new queue.

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Thank you Didier and Ponce. Ponce that command is so handy I can't belive I missed it in the --help and Didier thank you for clarifying, I feel much more comfortable using sbopkg now after reading responses from such qualified individuals. No offense moisespedro :P

bmarley83

when you load the build queue for the second thing that you want to install, just click deselect installed

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solarfields, that's a good point I guess I could just do that. I wasn't aware that it listed packages already installed within the interface like that, as I was only using command line. I'm gonna check it out, thanks.

I think you were also worried about config files? That is a good question. When you upgrade or remove a package, it leaves most of the stuff in /etc, and when you install a new package, it generally won't overwrite anything in /etc that already exists. This is why you have the .new files that appear in /etc after you upgrade a package, and this is why you often still have junk in /etc after you remove a package. This is a minor pain, but necessary to avoid losing any local config. The clever stuff is in the doinst.sh that comes with the SlackBuild.

Having said that, it is possible for a bad package to break these rules when it shouldn't... and for a good package to break these rules when it should

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bmarley83,

the interface is very nice with the same look and feel as pkgtool