Can one take what is in /var/cache and use it again on a different install of slack and how?
 

Ok heres something I've never tried before. To save me download time with a slow connection on post install updating a fresh install of Slackwere. Just take what is in the /var/cache of another slackwere copy it over (using root user of course) then when one (I) run slackpkg update / install-new / upgrade-all

should not slack see that thier is already some stuff within the /var/cache then just skip over it, or does it check the ch5sum first then if match skip else redownload?

anyways, with what is already within the cache it will skip then go to downloading what is left to be downladed and install up completion of getting what it needs?


two: what other files would need to be saved so it can be copied/moved on to the other system to keep the pkgs in cache striaght besides the asc file?

on a side note:

is there a way to make an iso of the update and just install that for a working operating system instead? Thus bypassing the whole install - update proccessssss?

Couldn't You try it on a virtual machine?
And report back :) ?

By default, slackpkg maintains records in /var/lib/slackpkg/ of the last update run using slackpkg. When an update is conducted using slackpkg, the /var/cache/packages directory and substructure is rebuilt.
If you use the 'DELALL=off' option in /etc/slackpkg/slackpkg.conf, then downloaded files are kept. I use this option and then move /var/cache/packages to another directory after using slackpkg to perform an update to keep an archive of downloaded files.
What you want to do would probably be best handled by maintaining a local mirror of Slackware. http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/local-slackware-mirror/

I'd need a working system for that .. ;)

well as it stands - I didn't save the /var/lib/slackpkg just the other one, and cache .. so I slipped into cross fingers and copy what i have over run the commands and hope for the best.

This is what I ended up with:
is that anything to loose sleep over?

If you want to use slackpkg, allend's suggestion of using a local mirror is probably the best idea.

Otherwise, you could just grab the packages from that location and manually use upgradepkg on them (using a wildcard so you don't have to type a bunch of commands).

Thanks I was just recovering from a post update - installed some 3rd party slackbuilds while I was waiting for slack to download everything to install it off the mirror. Ran out of time had to shut down before finishing the post update ctrl+C rebooted and lost me keyboard.

I do not know if that is what caused it or not, only that is what I was doing that might have screwed it up.

Instead of going though all of whatever to fix the keyboard even booting off the huge.s on the usb install stick did not give me back the keyboard. So I decided to install again and wondered if using the pkgs already downloaded into the cache might work to save time having to download everything again, and just pick up where it left off is all.

so yeah it seems to be working so far.

thanks.