Question about Slackware and Package Management

[William Park]

On Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at 10:15:41AM -0500, Steve wrote:
> I am interested in trying Slackware, however I am curious as to how
> package management works with it. Am I correct in assuming that
> anything you want to install, you download the tarball and use make
> and install? Are there any dependency problems? Is it up to the user
> to make sure all required packages are present... will the install
> process alert you to this?
> 
> I'm used to things like yum and apt-get so that is why I am wondering
> what to do with Slackware.
> 
> Thanks for any info.

Slackware uses .tgz (tar'ed and gzip'ed) file as vehicle for packages.
In addition to files to be installed, it has script to be run after the
files are installed, usually for creating symbolic links, moving 
files, running 'depmod', etc.

So, normally, you do
    installpkg xxx.tgz
It will install files, run 'doinst.sh', and prints log to
    /var/log/packages/xxx
    
You can do this manually, like
    cd /
    tar -xzf xxx.tgz
    sh ./install/doinst.sh
except for /var/log/packages/xxx.


man installpkg
man removepkg
man updatepkg

-- 
William Park <opengeometry-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org>, Toronto, Canada
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