Swaret vs. Slapt-Get (library dependencies)
 

I tried to follow Shilo's This is How I do It All thread, but when I get to the part with Swaret I fall into dependency heck. I uncommented the line for linuxpackages.net, but that URL (ftp://ftp.linuxpackages.net/pub/Slackware-9.1) is broken. I went to the linuxpackages site and put in the lines for the mirrors (http and ftp) closest to me. When I did swaret --upgrade; swaret --update -a; swaret --dep I realized I was missing a few (read "a ton") libraries. So when I couldn't get everything working, I did a reinstall. That takes a while, and I don't want to do it again, so I have a few questions:
1. Should I have let swaret stick with the initial repositories? Are the libraries satisfied there?
2. Would anyone recommend doing a world update with slapt-get? How are the dependencies there?
3. Should I just stick with my outdated but working system?
4. Are there any repositories that I can just run swaret --upgrade; swaret --update -a; swaret --dep and have all libraries installed?

Please help me figure out what to do. Any answers or alternate solutions would be greatly appreciated.

What version are you actually installing?

I would suggest not using swaret or slapt-get until you know more about what you are doing. If you download and install the latest version of Slackware then you can read the changelogs and download the patches to update your system.

From Shilo's guide:

I find this the worst piece of advice given to new Slackware users I've seen in a long time. No offence to Shilo, but this is definitely the way to screw your system all the way to hell.

First:

Why should any new Slackware user, after the painstaking process of installing his/her first Slackware from CDROM, upgrade to slackware-current which has a fat chance of being completely broken from one day to the other? Slackware-current is the development release! Only fit for people who accept they will have to fix their broken box if they are so unlucky as to upgrade at the wrong day... and know how they can fix their box.

Second:

The quality of packages at linuxpackages.net may seriously be doubted. Most of them are binary-only - meaning the packager does not want to show us how the package was created, and you can never be sure of what dependencies, or errors, such a package might have. Once you installed one, it might be too late already.

Third:

Swaret may be a useful progam to determine missing dependencies, but I would never trust it to keep my computer sane and working. Swaret is not part of Slackware, and while it tries to do it's best, it is not and never will be able to flawlessly determine how and if new/updated packages should be installed.

Understand, that running Slackware means that you have to use your brains. Slackware will not hold your hand, and will not play nice with applications that pretend they will hold your hand.

My 2 cents.

Eric

I think it should be pointed out that Alien Bob's warnings about swaret, current and LinuxPackages really apply to any 3rd-party package manager for Slackware.

Imho, there are many great packages at LP, they are a lifesaver. But you do have to look at them first and not install literally blindly with a package manager, be it slap-get, slackpkg or swaret. Some packeges from there have GNOME dependencies, for example and GNOME is no longer included in Slackware.

I'm running 10.2 and set it to VERSION=current. I did the whole swaret --upgrade; swaret --update -a; swaret --dep thing and when I realized how many libraries I was missing, I started to manually install them. I did a few slack packages and a few rpm2tgzs and got it working, but started having runtime errors (missing libraries swaret never told me about. I guess what I really want to know now is if there are any low maintainance ways to upgrade a Slackware system. I'd perfer stable to cutting edge but nonworking, however, so if there's no possibility of getting a working system this way (I have some time but not too much to devote to Linux) I'll stick with KDE 3.4. I understand Slackware's not easy, and I'm willing to put up with that, so just post any ideas for keeping my system current.

If you mean the 'current' branch, then IMO the best way is to use Slackpkg, read the Changelog, keep the *.new configuration files in /etc under constant review, and make backups of anything critical.

Backups aren't nescessary. I'm willing to put up with another install, although I'd rather not. Thanks for the advice. I meant by "current" the packages, not the distro, but I'll give Slackpkg a shot. Glad for the support.
[edit]
"slackpkg upgrade-all"ing now. Tell me quickly if that'll break my system.
LOL! Oh, you spelled Shilo wrong.
[/edit]

No offense taken. I completely agree. I need to change that all.

I still use swaret, but only to track the release I have installed. Blindly upgrading to -current and using a third party repo are both things better done manually (if at all).

I have left this glaringly wrong section alone for some time. I will try to find some time to edit it this weekend.

I apologize for leaving it un-changed for so long. Alien Bob is 1000% correct. The method as I have posted it WILL mess stuff up.

Thanks for the advice guys! I followed Xian's advice with slackpkg and only ended up with three missing libraries, all easily found with "slackpkg search [libraryname]". If I were you, Shilo, I'd put the slackpkg method on your tutorial. Other than that section, it's a great tutorial. I was able to use almost all of it, except the sections on Lilo. Sorry, my Gentoo install has me hooked on grub and I couldn't find map-bmp or whatever. So the moral of the story is: Slackpkg

For myself, I use the stuff posted here to make my own mirror, and cd iso's. Whenever I need to 'redo' everything (not often, but I experiment until my box is useless), I have a -current iso to install Slackware again.

That way, I also avoid the whole "automagic" update hell that tends to rear its ugly head.

It's kind of funny. The system I am using right now started out as a Slackware 9.1 (I think), I've since kept it up-to-date to -current through 9.2, 10.0, 10.1 .. and currently it says 11.0.0, all using swaret several times a year.

Sure, at times things have gotten messed up, but I've always managed to fix them faster than what it takes to fix any of my Debian machines that mess up when their great packaging system goes haywire when trying to stay close to their "current" (sid).

I'm very surprised that I've been able to keep this Slackware system, that I use as a desktop system, with KDE and many apps, working so well considering the wreckless package maintenance system it uses.

The thing that I've never been able to do is install a small-ish version of Slackware and have it be very stable, a mostly "full" install works best. I can (and do) do this with Debian however.