Rep: Reputation: 0 One question, how was slackware used before slackpkg?
 

One question, I know that slackpkg has existed for almost 20 years. But how was it done in the past before using slackpkg for system updates? How were packages installed, for example, that I removed?

Did you have a script? Another question is whether you still use this method without slackpkg and why? Show me examples? Thks

hi, I'm Ponce and I am slackpkg-addicted since too many years (I forgot how life was before)...

...but other esteemed forumers here are not, and there's also who developed some alternative scripts to manage updates (link at the topic and at the repo).

I'am slackware user from version 3.6 but honestly I did not remember when slackpkg was appear. I think it was in version 8.1. Before that it's was distributions like others at this time. After installation the user have everything that need at this time.

If the user need something extra or need to upgrade a package, just was need to go on freshmeat.net and look what he wanted, download it, configure, make and make install.

Slackpkg doing the great job for distribution tree no doubt for that, but unfortunate it's has a limit. Can work with multiple repos if you install slackpkgplus but does not have requirements / dependency if you want to install some package and you don't have dependency packages functionality like apt package manager on ubuntu or rpm on redhat, but that it's not a problem of slackpkg package.

I started with 10.0, and I'm sure slackpkg had to be downloaded and installed separately, wasn't included until a later release (maybe 11?).
EDIT:

There's a Wikipedia article about slackpkg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slackpkg

This old thread revives some memories. For a few releases, slackpkg resided in /extra before becoming official.

One had to follow the ChangeLog to see if there was any updates, and then manually download the new packages from FTP.

After that, some 3rd party tools began to be developed, such as slapt-get.

Finally, slackpkg began to be used and finally, added to the official distro.

Funnily enough, I use the "alternative" scripts ponce mentioned. :D

Back in the old days, before slackpkg, most folk just did it all manually. The churn rate wasn't that high for a stable slackware release so it wasn't that onerous.

Or it was time to upgrade to the next release. They came along pretty quickly back then.

Before slackpkg we did use swaret for a good while, it used to be sort of official as far as I remember

I've been using Slackware as my main for well over 20 years, and spent a year or two before that dabbling, starting with v. 7.0. The main reason I switched to Slackware was the majority of 1337 guys on IRC said the chose it because "Stuff just compiles right". I was a huge fan of "Checkinstall" and back then around KDE 3x era, KDE had a cool app that would handle package installs from most distros including Slackware back then. I've only been using Slackpkg (with Slackpkg+) for a little over one year. I like it OK, but if Checkinstall had kept up, I'd still be using it. I'm not a fan of mass upgrades.

I still do it manually. There is a thread here at LQ that posts the latest entries in the change log, but you can look directly at the change log in the main directory:

https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware64-15.0/

...but I also have a bookmark to the patches directory, sorted newest to oldest:

https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackw...kages/?C=M;O=D

I manually keep track of when I last downloaded and installed updates. When something new comes along, I download it using my browser, and install it as root using upgradepkg.

I don't think I've ever used slackware when there wasn't a slackpkg? (I started with 10.5.)

Used to be a time before slackpkg was included in slackware, but slackpkg was the first thing I'd download and add to it. But if I didn't have in installed yet, the included tools installpkg/upgradepkg/removepkg were my go-to. Easy to remember, easy to use, and included with the distro.

I recall having terrible luck with the official ftp, and generally using a mirror, but found mirrors just didn't sync as fast as I'd like, so I'd fight with the official ftp (using ncftp) when I could connect to get my updates and process them myself after leeching all the packages.

This post makes me feel old, I hadn't thought about slackpkg not being on an installation in many years.

I've been using Slackware for over 20 years now, and have never used slackpkg.
The makepkg, installpkg, upgradepkg, removepkg etc. Work fine for me.
I prefer manual upgrades and keeping an eye open for errors.

I use slackpkg for everything except the kernel. I don't want to get into a situation where I can't boot,so I blacklisted the kernel and its modules but left the kernel headers to update as normal. Now if I see kernel headers on the list, I know it's time to download the new kernel and install it.