Hello everybody, sorry for my english, I'm french.

I'm newbie on Slackware distribution, I'm reading the 3rd official handbook in beta version and I learn that the automated tool "slackpkg" exists only since Slackware 12.1.

Before that, how did users install new packages and their libraries ? Did they search each package with their web browsers and then install manually ?

For me, it seems tedious because I usually work with distributions like Fedora, Debian which use an online package management.

Is there another way to download it from console and without web browser?

Maybe you could try slapt-get or gslapt. It's a apt-get like packagemanager that exists longer. But I don't know what version of Slackware you are using. Slap-get and gslapt (the gui for the packagemanager) are no official slackware packages though.

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Thanks but I would like to use official packages. Did you use your web browser to download packages ?

slackware official packages all come on the install cd/dvd, you usually install them all when first installing slackware,
so there isn't much sense in an official automated package manager.
that being said, slackpkg does make it more convenient to install security patches or to keep track with slackware-current.
if you want to install software that isn't provided by official packages, you should check sbopkg, which helps building packages from source with slackbuild scripts, or look for unofficial reporitories such as alien bob's packages

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I have been using Slackware since Slackware 9. There were several different sites on the internet where one would look for packages, download them, and install them.

The main danger with those sites was that the package was the compressed .tgz. And, they were unofficial packages, so you didn't know how the submitter had built the package.

That is very unlike SlackBuilds.org, where you download the code to build the package, download the program source, build the package, and install the package.

Here are some of the old sites from my bookmarks: Package finder http://slak.homelinux.org/pkgs/, LinuxPackages (the major resource) http://www.linuxpackages.net/, http://slacky.it, Jay The Obscure's Slackware Packages (last updated Oct. 16, 2006) http://www.slackages.com/linux/slackages/. Jay's has a warning that to use his packages you might have to update other packages on your system because of dependencies.

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For SlackBuilds (from slackbuilds.org), get sbopkg. You can either use it from the ncurses GUI, or commandline. It more or less automates the download, build, and install process.

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As nivieru said, Slackware doesn't behave like many other Linux distributions. When you install it by default you get all official packages. They are around 1000 when Debian has more than 30000. There is no need then to grab packages through Internet apart from security updates (slackpkg may be used to do this).

If you don't do a complete install, then slackpkg is useful to add more official packages that you didn't choose first. Anyway you should install all packages from the A, AP, D, K, L, X (if you use it) series. All needed libraries (for official packages) are installed then.

To add unofficial packages, slackbuilds (and sbopkg) is the best direction to take. You would have to add dependencies yourself by reading the packages README file from the slackbuild site or from sbopkg.

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Ok, thanks for all this advices, it's more lucid for me now.

Must I have developer competence to understand concept of slackbuilds and compile software easily ?

No, you do not have to. I am not a programmer and have no problems using the slackbuilds to compile my own packages. Usually I sightly modify them to adjust them for my needs.

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You can install sbopkg on your machine, and then download the queue-files for that program. Than you can use sbopkg for installing software, this way it will handle dependencies, build and install the software for you. Isn't more difficut then using yum or apt-get.

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No.

http://slackbuilds.org/howto/

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OK, I tried it, and it's easier than the traditional .configure/make/make install and probably cleaner.
I have another a question :

How keep the system clean, since dependencies are not resolved, when I remove packages ? How can I remember a package's dependence if I installed it one years ago ? Must I have to note it myself ?

Yes, you have to take notes. Don't forget that a package that was installed as dependency may be also a dependency for other packages you have installed later.

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The way I do it is I keep the package in a folder with the deps.
As root I nav into the folder and do:
upgradepkg --install-new *.t?z <--- to install
and
removepkg *.t?z <--- to remove

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