introduction

Slackpkg is a tool for installing or upgrading packages through a network. You can make a minimal installation of Slackware Linux and then install additional packages from a Slackware mirror

You don't need to setup NFS or make dozens of CDs for all of your computers. Just type "slackpkg" and all packages in the Official Slackware Linux will be in your hands.

Installation

First, you need to download the "slackpkg" package. After that, install slackpkg using the installpkg command.

After install, you need to select ONE (and ONLY one) mirror to download packages from. Edit your /etc/slackpkg/mirrors and uncomment one of those lines or include your own mirror. Only FTP and HTTP mirrors are supported at the moment.

Once you have selected a mirror, type:

  • # slackpkg update

Slackpkg will download some important files and update all package *lists* (no actual packages will be updated during this part). You are now ready to use slackpkg ;-)

Usage

Slackpkg has many features, including search and automatic download and install or upgrade. To upgrade your packages, it is recommended that you run slackpkg update first so that the packages which were modified since the last "update" (such as patches) will be downloaded.

search

You can search in official Slackware packages for any *FILE* in the Slackware distribution. Do you need a strange library? Use search to find it.

  • # slackpkg search filename

All packages that contain the "filename" file will be shown with status showing whether the packages are installed or not, and if not, you can download and install them with other slackpkg commands.

install

The instalation of a package is very easy. You only need to type:

  • # slackpkg install package

and the package will be downloaded and installed. Instead of "package", you can use a pattern to download and install all packages that match the pattern. Before download and install, slackpkg will show a list of the packages to you and ask if you really want to install those packages.
As an example:

  • # slackpkg install n/dhcp

will download and install dhcp and dhcpcd. You can't install an already installed package; for this, you need to upgrade the package.

upgrade

Upgrade works in the same way as install. The only difference is that upgrade can re-install already installed packages and/or upgrade installed packages with a new version of them.

Upgrade can't install new packages; you need to install the package first and then do an upgrade (or you can install the upgraded package to start with and save time).

reinstall

In case you mistakenly corrupt something, the reinstall option is provided.

remove

With remove, you can remove certain installed packages. As an example:

  • # slackpkg remove kde

will remove all packages with "kde" in their name.

blacklist

With this command, you can "blacklist" certain packages. Packages blacklisted can't be installed, upgraded, or removed using the slackpkg utility. If you want to remove some package from the blacklist, you will need to edit /etc/slackpkg/blacklist.

download

Tells slackpkg to download the packages, but not to install them. They will be in /var/cache/packages, and you can install/upgrade/reinstall them later (or burn them to CD).

info

Print information about the package(s): compressed and uncompressed size, description, etc...

clean-system

Remove all the packages that don't belong to a standard Slackware installation (packages that are not in the official package set). With this option, you can clean up your system, removing third-party packages as well as those packages that were removed from the official Slackware package set.
If you have some third party packages that you would like to keep, you can temporarily add them to the list of blacklisted packages before you run the "clean-system" command.

upgrade-all

Keep your packages synced with the slackware tree. This is the "good" way to upgrade the whole system. Remember use install-new before run upgrade-all.

install-new

Install packages that were added to Slackware distribution. Run this if you are upgrading your system to another Slackware version or if you are using Slackware -current.

For more instructions and information (you must have slackpkg installed) type "#man slackpkg"