For some time I have not been able to get installpkg to display the contents of the slack-desc file in my custom packages. I have read the excellent howto at www.linuxpackages.net but am still having trouble. I make sure the file has exactly 11 lines, and keep everything within the ruler, I have even copied existing slack-desc files from other packages with no results, even gave the Slack-desc on-line creator a try.

Best thing to do is post the directory structure of one of you custom packages. The slack-desc file should be in install/, if that's any help. Do the above and we'll see what we can see.

Thank you for taking your time to respond to this thread. Here's the contents of my gens package:

total 16
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:20 ./
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:19 ../
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:17 install/
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 6 11:08 usr/

./install:
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:17 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:20 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 709 Mar 16 11:07 slack-desc

./usr:
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 6 11:08 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:20 ../
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:17 bin/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Mar 6 11:08 share/

./usr/bin:
total 4468
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:17 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 6 11:08 ../
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4552382 Mar 6 11:08 gens*

./usr/share:
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Mar 6 11:08 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 6 11:08 ../
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:17 gens/

./usr/share/gens:
total 124
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:17 ./
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Mar 6 11:08 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3638 Mar 6 11:08 Gens2.ico
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 322 Mar 6 11:08 bitmap1.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 322 Mar 6 11:08 bmp00000.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 322 Mar 6 11:08 bmp00001.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 322 Mar 6 11:08 bmp00002.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 322 Mar 6 11:08 bmp00003.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 322 Mar 6 11:08 bmp00004.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 322 Mar 6 11:08 bmp00005.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 322 Mar 6 11:08 bmp00006.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 766 Mar 6 11:08 gens.ico
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 47878 Mar 6 11:08 gens_big.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13366 Mar 6 11:08 gens_small.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4710 Mar 6 11:08 sonic.ico
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2862 Mar 6 11:08 sonic2.ico

The slack-desc is in install/ and here is its contents:

# HOW TO EDIT THIS FILE:
# The "handy ruler" below makes it easier to edit a package description. Line
# up the first '|' above the ':' following the base package name, and the '|'
# on the right side marks the last column you can put a character in. You must
# make exactly 11 lines for the formatting to be correct. It's also
# customary to leave one space after the ':'.

|-----handy-ruler------------------------------------------------------|
gens: gens (Sega Genesis Emulator)
gens:
gens: This is a Unix port (x86 processors) of the Sega Genesis Emulator
gens: "Gens", version 2.12a. It emulates Genesis, Sega CD (iso/mp3,
gens: not real CD) and 32X roms.
gens:
gens:
gens:
gens:
gens:
gens:

With the actual slack-desc file the start of the ruler is above the ":" mark but it's not showing up that way in the above post. Also I have copied slack-desc files from other packages (parted-1.6.6-i486-1) into the install/ directory and still couldn't get the slack-desc to show a package description when running installpkg, yet installpkg will show the slack-desc file when installing parted-1.6.6-i486-1.

What is your gens package named? installpkg requires (from a cursory look at the script) that the package name be in the form gens-1.0-i386-1xxx.tgz (as you probably know from LinuxPackages) to display the slack-desc file correctly. Your package directory structure and permissions appear fine, so other than the above I'm out of ideas.

Ok I know what I did wrong now I named the package based on the source directory name " gens-linux-2.12a-i686-1.tgz" but renaming it to gens-2.12a-i686-1.tgz solved the problem.