Slackware dependency tree? Desktop, LAMP, X, Mail, FTP?
 

Sorry about the title, but i can't describe what i want to do just with few words.

I want to make a dependency tree or pre-made tagfiles for Slackware 14 x86 or x64 which help the user to install packages needed to run Slackware like a desktop (running either KDE or XFCE or Fluxbox etc.) or like LAMP server, Mail server, FTP server etc.

I want to include only packages that are needed by the desired option, which will make the installation clean, small and fast. Everything else that's needed will be able to install using slackpkg tool.

I am trying to do this myself, but i find it difficult because i'm still not that good with Slackware, so every suggestion, information will be appriciated. Thanks.


p.s. I found on the LQ wiki a how-to for minimal install, but it's for Slackware 13 :(

If you want the quick and dirty approach just look at SalixOS's dependency setup to help you work this out. SalixOS is so similar to Slack it should give you a quick idea. Their installer has three default install options: Core (minimal software essential for a console system), Basic (minimal graphical environment to run most apps) and Full.

I would look at exactly what Core and Basic actually installs. Build LAMP server, Mail server, FTP server tagfiles up from Core and base your Desktop tagfiles from the Basic starting point.

It might even be worth trying to install Core and Basic in VMs and running http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/t...e_generator.sh within these environments to see what is created. ;)

That all said, I wonder to what extent all of this is worth it. If it were me I would just do a full install for Desktop and for server setups just untick obvious stuff like x, xap, xfce, kde and kdei. If you really need that level of dependency management you could always just use SalixOS directly.

Still that is just my personal opinion. You should obviously do whatever you feel suits you best! :)

Just an extra comment on this:

It won't be any faster. You are thinking Slackware is like other distros and slows down just by having a lot of software installed. It doesn't! That is the beauty of Slack! You might want to read this to better understand why.

Alternatively, the short version is that on most distros if you install some application that runs as a daemon/service, the install scripts in the post install of that package will typically start it immediately (and leave it running). On Slackware however, unless you enabled a service during the Slackware install, or later manually, most of the software installed just sits on your disk doing nothing other than taking up space and hence has no affect on the speed of your running system at all.

Maybe it really isn't worth it, but all the stuff i don't use from the full install i consider useless for me, plus i want to know what i have and what i don't installed on my system.

Thanks for the advice. I'll take a look at Salix and maybe trough all Slackware packages.
Or maybe i should do a full install and remove everything i don't need and create tagfile from /var/log/packages? (that's why i needed the dependency tree of Slackware's packages)

If you are new to Slack, definitely start with a full install. Oh and I would again encourage you to read my blog post (linked above) to help you decide what to do in the long run. ;)

Depending on your skill set you may be able to write a script to parse these and create a dependency tree.

Will do. Thanks.

I think you'll like this.

http://depfinder.sourceforge.net/

That tool is actually by gapan (of SalixOS fame) and is what the SalixOS team to help them create their dependency information (@kikinovak: I know you know this. I am stating it for the sake of the OP).

What the hell, I had a little spare time so I converted the Core, Basic and Full package installation selections from SalixOS 14.0 Xfce edition into tagfile format for you. It'll give you something to start from if you do decide to do this.

Core: 32-bit (1Gb) / 64-bit (1.1Gb)
Basic: 32-bit (1.6Gb) / 64-bit (1.7Gb)
Full: 32-bit (2.2Gb) / 64-bit (2.3Gb)

EDIT: I tweaked all the tagfiles to add in slackpkg (since Slackware doesn't ship with slapt-get, like SalixOS). I also added in the Gnome icons set to Basic and Full so that Xfce wouldn't have missing icons (SalixOS provides its own icons). Finally, I also added Firefox and Thunderbird to Full (since Slackware doesn't ship with Midori and Claws Mail, which SalixOS provides).

P.S. There is no special reason for me storing the tagfiles in cpio format rather than tar. I just like to mix things up occasionally. ;) If you aren't sure how to open them, do the following:

Ruario, nice!

For the fun of it, here is the tagfile set I am using for my game & teamspeak server. It does not require anything X related and uses a bit less than 500 MB of disk space once installed.
If you do not need gcc (and a game server typically does not need it) you can free up an additional 50 MB by leaving out the packages gcc, libelf, mpfr and libmpc.

Slackware 14.0 minimal (32-bit and 64-bit)

Eric

Actually credit goes to the SalixOS team (they made the selections) and you (since I just ran your tagfile generator script under SalixOS installed under a VM). ;)

Also, thanks for sharing your tagfile as it is much smaller than the Core selection that SalixOS offers. I might use it as a base when I next setup an account on a VPS, since they are always limited in space.

ruario, great blog post.

Jotto,

When I did something like that with Slackware many years ago I installed at the beginning just the packages from the “A” series and then I added the necessary packages manually in groups or one by one. Unfortunately I didn’t save my notes so you should try to do that alone. (The “mc” from “AP” series makes the work in the console mode less painful.)

I should of course point out (in case it wasn't obvious) that SalixOS actually bundles quite a few extra 'desktop' packages that are not found in regular Slackware in their default Core, Basic and Full setups. Therefore these tagfile selections will be missing much of what would actually be found if you used SalixOS directly and hence are not direct equivalents. However they still serve as a good and relatively slim foundation you can build upon, with packages from SlackBuilds.org and other sources. I only added in the icons and browser/mail because they are so obviously missing when you first boot.