/var/log/packages is empty!
 

I have a system with many applications installed and running perfectly, however my /var/log/packages directory is empty with the exception of x11 - related packages, I did upgrade x11 but wtf happened to the other packages?!

This happened to someone else here a little while back. Offhand, I'd say your boned. :p Really, there isn't much you can do. If I were you, I'd write a script similar to the unix log rotate deal. Have cron tarball up your /var/log/packages directory a couple minutes after you boot. Have it rotate the file names for 10 days and then delete the oldest one on the tenth day...

I don't know what else to tell you except to re-install. Maybe someone else will have an idea.

Thats kind of wierd that all of your logs are missing from /var/log/packages. Does anyone else log into this machine?

Shit, I can't see anything in /var/log/packages/, either! Could someone please post some of files (two or three) in it, so I could try to make a script to generate them.

I guess you could modify /sbin/installpkg to not install a package but write only its /var/log/packages entry. To do this you got to have all packages you installed. It would be possbile too, I think, to check if the files in the package-tgz-file can be found on your system (i. e. if you installed it or if it is a not installed package). Sorry I can't help more with this, but in /sbin/installpkg you will find the way the package files are generated.

Alright, thanks, it should not be a problem - if there is a way, I'll find it. ;)

To know which package contain which files you could parse slackware/MANIFEST.bz2, actually, you could recreate all packages "logs" by parsing slackware/MANIFEST.bz2 correctly and adding the info from the .txt files that corresponds to the package (I don't know if the package size and location shown on logs are important, I think they aren't).
I don't have time these days, but if you still can't do it at the weekend I could give you some help with it.

From MANIFEST.bz2 (I took some lines only..):
The log at /var/log/packages/aaa_base-10.2.0-noarch-2:

I have this problem on a storage server. Either I didn't quite understand the answer above or it didn't help me.

current have a symlink /var/log/packages to /var/lib/packages

Im not sure if need reinstall base , or slackpkg ... no remember what pacakge do the symlink to the correct /var/lib

if you have var/lib/packages with files ..only delete /var/log/packages and symlink to var/lib

How I created (and escapted) a similar problem...
 

Not sure if this will help, but here is what I did to create a similar scary situation a few weeks ago:

First, I'm 76 and hands sometimes get shaky. On occasion, when using a mouse, I try to double-click to open a folder, but because of slight shaking, THAT folder actually winds up being MOVED into a nearby folder (in the list). I think in one case the folder remained in the list, but empty, and the contents were moved, into a new folder of same name, INSIDE another folder.

Since the incident to be described, it has not happened again, thankfully.

This is scary if you are root. Once, it 'happened' (correction, I DID it...) while I WAS root (!). It was a major folder, and it wound up inside another folder - not right next to, but two folders away. Having 'found it', I moved it BACK to the / directory - wild emotions in check.

On rebooting, much of the system was GONE. Many things did not work at all. BUT, luckily, after a couple reboots, it ALL CAME BACK. System has been fine every since, thankfully. Now I'm VERY CAREFUL with the mouse (root OR user) while working in a file-manager (thunar). I'm thinking about doing as much as I can from command line in future - more difficult, therefore more care required by nature. Benefit: Learning more command line.

Someone in the Linux / Slackware design pool obviously foresaw this possibility and built in a fail-safe. I think this trumps most of my criticisms of linux in the past. Wow.

Hope this sheds some light for those similarly afflicted. I was very fortunate to find (stumble on) a way out of the mess.

jrc

Shaky hands: What about frequently making backups?
I always run as root but at 74 my hands are not shaky (yet -- thanks $DEITY). I do mount a "development" directory on /root instead of on /root/works from time to time -- restoring the backup over the resulting mess is the easiest way out ...
:D

Must be a record for resurrecting old threads -- more than 13 years! :)

@jrch: The problem is not shaky hands. The same thing can happen with trackpads too. This no-questions-asked drag-and-drop behavior is common in GUI file managers in all operating systems. Bad design.

/var/log/packages is empty!
 

That's why we have suckless tools! These are perfect for laptops :-D

Yes, it is. I really hate drag and drop for that reason and I always advise people to use copy/cut and paste instead. Especially Windows Exploder (on-site technician here and I have to deal with a lot of Windows users)

However, I use X File Explorer that prompts on drag and drop. It asks in a little menu if I want to move, copy, link or cancel if anything is dragged. (there are dialog settings for confirmation prompts for pretty much everything). Drag and drop is safe and useful when I get to decide what, if anything, is going to happen.

If you have shaky hands or suffer from "mouse-arm" you might want to give trackballs a try:
https://www.logitech.com/en-us/produ...rackball-mouse
https://www.logitech.com/en-us/produ...trackball-m570

Since I started to use one of above linked trackballs instead of a classic mouse I have not experienced any mouse related pain. It might also help with shaky hands. You can shake as much as you want, if you are not touching the trackball then the mouse will not move.

PS:
I am not affiliated with logitech.