Hi All,

I'm using slackware 13.37 and I must say that I really like this distro and the biggest problem is the lack of dependency handling. This is something that bites you right away because you have this nice clean simple operating system but unless you really know what's dependent on what you have to install piles of stuff with lots of programs with duplicate functions. A minimal install option would be nice and I can see from some of the threads that even those with a good deal of experience have had a hard time doing a minimal install. I tried about ten times using different guides but I always ended up with something broken so now I have the full install running fine but with tons of stuff that I don't want or need including most of kde. Anyway, I don't think that the slackware people are going to change their minds about dependency handling anytime this century.
Although for those who have said that it's a FEATURE, I'd point out that all distros have this feature, JUST DON'T USE THEIR PACKAGE MANAGER! So with all that said, I think it's a shame about the lack of dependency handling but I still like slackware well enough to use it even though I find the dependency thing quite annoying. I know that there are people here that have a lot more experience than I do and maybe there are some tools that could make this business easier. So how do you go about removing programs? Debian has deborphan and Arch has pacman -Rd. When you remove a program in slackware, how do you then get rid of all the unneeded dependencies? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

For me the lack of dependency checking in Slackware is a strength, not a deficit. The system administrator (that's you) checks dependencies. A full install of Slackware works out_of_the_box with all dependencies met.

2 members found this post helpful.

Their package managers break if you do that. So it's not the same situation at all.

Anyway, if you do remove a package and find that you've broken something, you can easily find out which specific file you still needed (from error messages, ldd output, etc). Then you can look at the MANIFEST.bz2 file to see which package contains that file, and put that package back.

And please keep in mind that the recommended install, especially for new users, is a full install. Not a minimal install.

3 members found this post helpful.

I keep all of my packages in a folder.
Inside that folder I have separate folders for individual packages with there deps as well as a “not_used folder”.
If I want to install a single package I navigate into that folder and run
upgradepkg --install-new *.t?z
or to remove
removepkg *.t?z

To install “all” packages I go into the main package folder that contains all of the separate package folders an issue
upgradepkg --install-new *?/*.t?z
or to remove
removepkg *?/*.t?z

When I remove a package (with the deps) I move it to the “not_used” and return to the main folder and the run
upgradepkg --install-new *?/*.t?z
to be sure that I still have all the deps that I need for other packages that may have used one of the removed deps.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks,

All replies were helpful and I have since also found this list:http://www.tomas-m.com/blog/upload/s...deps-13.37.php
and: http://depfinder.sourceforge.net/

Thanks agian to all.

You might like Salix, a Slackware respin. The packages are the same (except for the extra ones), but dependency handling is added, together with some configuration tools. Slackers believe the old saying "the best way to get a job done properly is to do it yourself". The rest of us prefer "why keep a dog and bark yourself".

Yeah but then your tethered to a repo and can only get whats on that repo.
Last time I looked it still doesn't have k9copy.
If you want K9copy on Salix you still have to build it your self and chase down all the deps.
Don't get me wrong, I think Salix is a great distro and I do mess around with it from time to time.
But why have a little dog when you can have a big one.

I don't get it.

Greetz
I'd rather fix a broken app than a broken system any day. This is especially true when the installation of said app was done only by me, the admin/operator, than software in the background hidden from sight. This sort of "feature" is compounded like you wouldn't believe when you uninstall something since such algorithms were apparently written by Attila the Hun.

I know that this is an old subject and people have their opinions that are relevant for the way that they like to do things. I don't mind dealing with dependencies myself when I'm installing a program but being forced to install a pile of stuff that I don't want is a bigger problem for me especially when it's difficult to remove all of the cruft. I've found a few more resources and a more recent thread on minimal install so I'll give it another try. I would rather install a minimal system and then build everything myself, I don't have a problem with that. If I can't figure out how to do a minimal install, I'll give Salix a try. Thanks again for all the replies.

You can do a minimal install in Salix: "Salix comes with three different installation modes. *** Basic Mode provides a user with a graphical desktop environment, a web browser and Gslapt package manager. *** The Core Mode installs the minimum software essential for a console system to start (i.e. a graphical environment is not provided)." Core should be minimal enough!

Thanks David,

I'll check it out.

I had problems with the saying as well. After reading it again I guess he means, why have an OS and do yourself what the OS is supposed to do?

In that case, I agree with slackass:

But perhaps I'm misunderstanding everything...

There's neat gui program to grab buildscripts and sources from slackbuilds.org and build and install them in Salix. I guess you still have to README to get the list of required dependencies. Slackbuilds.org probably does not list dependencies which are already included in slackwares full install, thus, it may be a bit more complicated than just reading the provided READMEs to get all the dependencies of an app installed with minimal slackware or salix install.

While for a few times i've missed a feature to uninstall a program along with not-shared dependencies, it becomes a non-issue after a while, because you already remember what is for what in you system after some time of manual dependency handling - you gain an insight which will help maintaining your system and troubleshoot it - a nice side efect of using slackware.

sbopkg queuefiles make dependency handling easy. Once you've got the queuefiles, then it's just a matter of running:

1 members found this post helpful.