How to use Package Management?
 

Using Slackware 12

I have a few questions about Package management:

What is this referring to?

How do I deal with dependencies: find the list for the package, and know where
to install them?
Do I make the program and it's dependencies into a package?


Can I install packages that aren't in the Slackware repository or
an RPM Package?

One program I want to install is:
openoffice:OOo_2.2.1_LinuxIntel_install_wJRE_en-US.tar.gz
which I downloaded from Openoffice.org

I'll address the immediate problem now (and hopefully come back later), as I don't have time to get too elaborate right now...

First, you don't need the OOo with JRE -- Slackware includes the jre package.
Second, you probably want to use the SlackBuild script at http://slackbuilds.org to build a Slackware package from the binary the OOo guys distribute. Read the instructions for doing that at http://slackbuilds.org/howto/

If you want it already packaged up for Slackware, have a look at the first and/or second link in my signature.

You can install RPM's (rpm2tgz or with src2pkg), but my advice is not to do that unless there is no other choice. As Robbie Workman stated, use SlackBuild scripts if possible or else Slackware packages from his site, Alien Bob's, Slacky-eu or LinuxPackages.net.
Compiling from source (using a SlackBuild script) has my preference. ;)

...and with regard to dependencies, all of the sites mentioned will tell you if there are dependencies, what they are, and provide SlackBuilds for those packages as well.

Brian

Hi,

Just too add a few more links to check then look at the packages section of the 'Slackware-Links' formerly 'Slackware LQ Suggestions Links!' for some good online reference.

Seems pretty self-explanatory to me. installpkg by default will unpack the package in /. The package will contain the directories containing the files (like etc, lib, bin and so on) and when you unpack it in /, the files go into those directories in /, so /etc, /lib, /bin, etc. This is usually what you want. If you want to set up a / directory somewhere else, on some other partition that happens to be mounted somewhere (like /mnt as given in the example), you'd use ROOT=/mnt installpkg foo.tgz and the package would be unpacked there, so any directories would be under /mnt (/mnt/etc, /mnt/lib, /mnt/bin for example).

Thanks for the responses.

I tried a couple of things:

I went to slackbuilds.org and downloaded:
source:
OOo_2.2.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz
slackbuild:
openoffice.org.tar.gz

I followed the instructions in the HowTo and ended up with the program
installed in /tmp/SBo/Package-openoffice.org/
I didn't find a slackware package.
Did I use the wrong slackbuild?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also tried to configure and compile the program from source:
From what I read I should download and unpack the source and then run the
commands:
./configure --prefix=/slackpack
make
make install

I unpacked OOo_2.2.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz
I moved the unpacked source file: OOF680_m18_native_packed-1_en-US.9161
into the directory slackpack and ran ./configure --prefix=/slackpack
I received the following result
./configure: No such file or directory

The directories under OOF680_m18_native_packed-1_en-US.9161 are:
RPMS licenses readmes

Thanks.

No, but you did misinterpret the instructions. If everything took place as expected, you have a *package* in /tmp -- the contents of /tmp/SBo/package-openoffice.org/ are irrelevant (this is where the package *contents* were placed during the packaging process). You use installpkg(8) to installed the actual package in /tmp.

Exactly as expected. The file you downloaded is not source code - it's a precompiled binary.

On a related note, once you install Slackware how do you keep it up to date?
I have found that slackupdate.sh from

http://darklinux.net/slackupdate

does a great job.

hth,

The GNUinator

On the subject of OpenOffice.org, I just pushed the new release (2.3.0) to my personal website. It's not at SlackBuilds.org yet, but you can get the build script I used from my sources directory (that's the one which will eventually be at SBo anyway).

All updates for slackware 12 are here.

http://slackware.osuosl.org/slackwar...ches/packages/

You just have to download and install them using upgradepkg. It's the simplest way. Any new updates will also go into that directory.

I don't like automatic update tools.
Wanna be in control myself. ;)
KslackCheck (basically just a GUI for rsync) is still my favorite.
It doesn't do anything but bring the updates to your pc (if you want!). Installing them with upgradepkg is a snap and you get the chance to read the README's first...

It says:

SlackUpdate currently supports: Slackware 8.1 - 10.2, and current

Does it work for slack 12?

That's probably why the slackbuild script didn't work either, but I downloaded the file from the link at slackbuild.org:
Download Source:
OOo_2.2.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz
-------------------------------------------------------------

I decided to use the slackbuild script for openoffice.org-2.3.0
I went to: http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/sources/12...fice.org-2.3.0
Does this contain the source I can use for openoffice 2.3.0 slackbuild?
OOo_2.3.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz

I also went to openoffice.org, but am unsure about which packages I need to download for the source to use the slackbuild script:

Yes, that's the one.