I have been using slackware for the past year now and have tried many other distros but keep coming back to it. Most recently I installed debian sarge and I really liked apt-get (maby I am getting lazy).

Anyway which do you think is the best equivalant for slackware?

I voted #3 :}

If I wanted someone else to decide what's good
for my system I'd run debian ...


Cheers,
Tink

my roomate tried swaret and didnt like

I seldom run into dependence problems so my vote is #3. I like to read comments, browse package structures and pick the things that I need.

There are many programs that need setup/ compile anyway.

Ive used swaret successfully and not so successfully, If you use a 3rd party program you have to watch it real close. I would have to reluctantly say #2, but ive never tried #1 so its not very fair.

I voted number 3.
And to paraphrase Tinkster;
If I wanted someone else to decide what's good for my system I'd use windows.

I voted for swaret... it may not be the perfect updating tool out there, but it does the job well for me...

however, for updating the kernel (since im on scsi), lilo, and other important or critical programs, i prefer manually recompiling from source.

I personally love slackpkg it also seems to be the only "update" program that is offically supported as it's downloadable from www.slackware.com.

I didn't vote, as I've never used Slaptget.

However, I find Swaret to be very useful, customizable, and well designed.

Properly configured and used, Swaret doesn't decide what's best for your system. It merely tells you, quickly and easily, what updates and patches are available for the packages that you already have installed. It then prompts whether or not to download and install each package. You can select yes or no to each individual package/patch. Thus, I decide what updates and patches are best for my system. Then Swaret downloads and installs them for me (using the slackpkg program, by the way).

It's especially useful after receiving "slackware-security" notifications and also reduces traffic on the slackware.com site (because you should have it configured to check the mirror(s) for updates).

You can configure it to EXCLUDE programs or packages that you never want, such as programs that you compile from source or programs that you just despise, using simple keywords. For example "EXCLUDE=kernel" excludes packages that contain the word "kernel" in their names. The Advanced Exclude option is especially nice. "EXCLUDE=kernel[source,headers]" excludes the same "kernel" packages, except those that contain either "source" or "headers". (So, it will ignore "kernel-ide" packages, but will tell you when "kernel-source" or "kernel-headers" packages are available.) As always, you should control which packages are actually installed and when.

Again, the key is to configure and use Swaret properly:
-EXCLUDE the appropriate packages
-Set it to prompt you for each available package

I run a lot of stuff on my server, but I've stripped absolutely everything that I don't need off of it. Swaret's dependency checking will tell me if I'm missing any libraries when I install or add something new or after I've stripped off deprecated or outdated packages and libraries.

Before dismissing these programs, I recommend finding out more about their features and options. Obviously, you can check their respective web sites/pages and their man pages. For Swaret, the default swaret.conf file also contains a lot of information about Swaret's functionality and options that you may not otherwise realize it has.

To repeat: I haven't yet used Slaptget, so I can't compare the two programs. But I have heard good things about it and the direction it's headed.

-Slack

Can somebody clarify why people are saying that slapt-get/swaret are deciding what's good for your system. It's not like these programs are constantly running downloading things from random sources (which could possibly be trojans/backdoors) which they believe will be good for your system. All they do is download newer slackware packages that you tell them to from the servers that you point them to. Yes, some of these packages can mess up your current settings, but thats why the EXCLUDE options are there. The only problem is if you dont trust the packages that are on slackware servers. These, however, are made my Patrick, and if you dont trust him, you really shouldn't be running slackware.


However, there may be something that I am missing which is causing many to be mistrustful of swaret/slapt-get. If there is, please clarify a bit. Thanks.

I have used slapt-get, swaret and slackpkg. If all you are doing with is upgrading to the latest patches and such it's great. But I think doing to maunually when moving for say 9.1-10.0 would be the way to go.

As a side note, I don't recommend anyone doing this at this point but, for informational purposes:

I used Swaret to upgrade one of my test systems from Slackware 9.0 to 10.0 and it actually worked great, except that I had to uninstall and then recompile my NVidia driver before I could get back into X using it (not really Swaret's fault).

Note that this didn't involve updating any kernel-* packages since I was already on 2.6.7, compiled from source, on that machine at the time.

The other missing functionality that prevents Swaret from being a good solution for Slackware version upgrades (assuming that you use the --upgrade option):
-Doesn't inform you of new packages available unless they are a dependency of an existing package.
-Doesn't inform you of outdated/deprecated/no longer needed packages that could now be removed.

If it gave you the option of adding new packages and removing outdated packages that are no longer dependecies, it might work well for version upgrades.

-Slack

I used slapt-get for a little while before I discovered swaret, and I now use swaret exclusively on all of my machines. I have setup a (10.0) repository with swaret-tools on my local network so I can update machines quickly via LAN.

My main gripe with swaret is the CPU usage. I hear that it's mainly script based, and hence it's rather slow when I try and update on a Celeron 500 laptop.

Thanks for all your input! Its really interesting to get all your points of view. I guess I should have kind of expected a lot of people using slackware were using it as it comes and not like just about every other distribution that comes with an update utility.

I guess slackware must be for control freeks! (No offence intended) I love it but I guess I also am also trying new things (To try not to get stuck in my ways!)

Also I maby be biased, but the slackware forum here seems to be one of the best on the site, with regards to the number of people using it and quick replies (maby related).

Although maby this is not the best place to ask which is best as a lot of people don´t seem to have used these tools!

I voted swaret but never used slapt-get so I think I'm biased. The was I use swaret is to just download upgraded packages then install them myself. Swaret is very handy for checking dependancies. As for finding out what has been removed, i.e. sent to pasture, just keep an eye on the changelog as most ppl seem to do.