How do you install your applications?
 

Since I started using Slackware64-13.37 I learned several ways of installing application.

1.
sh <name>.sh
sh <name>.run
sh <name>.<extension>

2.I guess this i what is called compiling
giving commands like:
make
make install
cmake
(I don't know how this works, I use tutorials).

3.Changing .tar.gz extension to .tgz renaming the file, then
installpkg <name>.tgz
(this always create a folder in the root folder)

And another question: How do I find out if an application requires additional libraries?

check out a site:

http://slackbuilds.org/

Simply installing a tar.gz using install pkg likely not a good idea, but that site will help you get started and they have tons of install scripts.

There is also a tool for using slackbuilds.org called sbopkg, just google it.

Welcome to slackware :)

Thank you!

This is not the correct way to do this. You have to use installpkg, upgradepkg, removepkg, with Slackware or Slackware compatible packages not just ordinary tarred and gzipped bundles.

You should look for a package called sbopkg it makes compiling and installing Slackware packages easy.

Dependencies are normally listed in the documentation, but if they're not, run the program from the command line and read the error message. Then install that package and re-run the program. Carry this on until it works.

samac

WhiteWolf1776 type faster than samac, samac must drink less!

Oh, almost forgot to mention a kinda cool bit... sbopkg can do queue files and there are a ton of them. Just follow the site and once you see how easy, you can make your own. I have all my extra software in a custom queue file so when I need to build a new box it's as easy as install slackware, install sbopkg, run sbopkg with the queue file and go get some pizza.

Also, just as it will save you much headachs, su is not sudo... you don't have to su this and su that. you should "su -" (the - matters) then run any slackbuild scripts. Not doing this can cause problems. For a full writeup, read up on slackbuilds web site.

Long story short, you could install binary packages from repos like slacky.eu or build them yourself using slackbuilds. Check out sbopkg, it's a cli interface to the aforementioned website and allows you to browse and install packages much faster and easier. It also supports queues - a list of packages to build - for the packages with more deps - which speed up the process significantly.
Very often the required dependencies are listed in the description of the program. Running the newly installed application from terminal and checking the input usually is informative enough to see what exactly is missing.
Also, if you want automatic dependency resolving, you could install slapt-get, although IMHO that would defeat the purpose of using Slack in the first place.

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Edit: Oops, too late. Damn multitasking. XD

cristi92b, you can also use src2pkg (www.src2pkg.net).

src2pkg works automagically on many downloaded source tarballs (or zips), and gives you the package management advantage (mostly: it shows in all package tools and lists, and can be uninstalled or upgraded cleanly)

Thank you!!!