slackpkgplus/src/README

slackpkg+ plugin for third-party repositories

Slackpkg is a package manager for Slackware.

Slackpkg+ is a plugin for slackpkg.
   It adds support for third-party repositories.
   You can install, upgrade and search from multiple repositories.

Thanks to alienbob and phenixia2003 for contributing and all other submitted
suggestions and/or patches.

********************* DISCLAIMER **********************
This is NOT an official tool. Use it at your own risk.
The third party repositories are NOT official.
The authors of those repositories are not responsible
for any damage that may be caused to your computer.
*******************************************************

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CONFIGURATION

* Edit /etc/slackpkg/slackpkgplus.conf
* Uncomment one or more mirrors and add them to the REPOPLUS list
* Optionally, set PKGS_PRIORITY to give priority order for packages present in
  multiple repositories

For a list of supported repositories see repositories.txt, but you can also
add others yourself.

If you configure repositories that do not support gpg, you may need to set
"CHECKGPG=off" in /etc/slackpkg/slackpkg.conf

Then launch
# slackpkg update gpg
# slackpkg update

To keep slackpkg+ updated, uncomment the 'slackpkgplus' repository, and then
# slackpkg upgrade-all
will upgrade slackpkg+ whenever a new version is released.

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MIRRORPLUS

The MIRRORPLUS array defines all mirrors. It accepts these protocols:

1) http/ftp/https: for example,

     MIRRORPLUS['slacky']=http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware64/

   The mirror must contains all metadata files (CHECKSUMS.md5 ...)
   You must run 'slackpkg update' after adding/removing a repository.

2) Local mirror: for example,

     MIRRORPLUS['alienlocal']=file://mirrors/alienbob/x86/14.0/

   The directory must contains all metadata files (CHECKSUMS.md5 ...)
   You must run 'slackpkg update' after adding/removing a repository.

3) Local packages directory: for example,

     MIRRORPLUS['mypackages']=dir://mypackages/

   All packages must be in a single directory (subdirectory not allowed).
   Note that 'slackpkg update' ignores these repositories. Every time you run
   slackpkg, it reads the directory contents.


-----


USAGE

See 'man slackpkg' :D

Use the command
# slackpkg upgrade-all
to keep your system up-to-date. This command searches for upgraded packages
spanning all configured repositories.

Use the command
# slackpkg install-new
(if you use Slackware -current) to check for new packages. This command
searches for new packages ONLY in the official Slackware repository.

The command
# slackpkg {install,upgrade,remove,reinstall}
accepts the following kinds of argument:

1) package-name (spanning all repositories), for example
   # slackpkg install bsd-games

2) part of package-name (spanning all repositories), for example
   # slackpkg install alsa

3) path of packages in repository (spanning all repositories), for example
   # slackpkg install xap

4) repository-name, for example
   # slackpkg upgrade alienbob
   upgrades all packages in the alienbob repository, and
   # slackpkg install ktown
   installs all packages in the ktown repository

5) repository-name:package-name, for example
   # slackpkg install slacky:openjdk
   installs openjdk from slacky even if there is another openjdk in another
   repository

6) file:local-file-name (txz/tgz), for example
   # slackpkg install file:mypackage-1.0-noarch-1my.txz
   installs mypackage even though not defined in slackpkgplus.conf
   (you can specify either a relative or an absolute path)

7) dir:directory, for example
   # slackpkg {install|upgrade} dir:/root/myrepo
   installs or upgrades all packages in /root/myrepo/
   (The final '/' is not strictly required.)
   Note: 'slackpkg install .' is an alias of 'slackpkg install dir:./', but
   'slackpkg install ./' is NOT the same alias; see FILE in man slackpkg

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PRIORITY CONFIGURATION

When a package is present in more than one repository, the package will be
searched for in the following order:

1) as listed in PKGS_PRIORITY
2) as listed in an official Slackware repository
   (configured in /etc/slackpkg/mirrors)
3) as listed in REPOPLUS
4) all others defined in MIRRORPLUS

PKGS_PRIORITY syntax:
  PKGS_PRIORITY=( <repository name>:<package name> ... )

for example:
  PKGS_PRIORITY=( alienbob:openjdk )

<package name> accepts a regular expression, so for example
  PKGS_PRIORITY=( restricted:.* )
means 'all packages in repository restricted'

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MULTILIB

If you want to use a multilib system, you can automatically configure the
multilib repository in slackpkgplus.conf and install multilib simply by running:
# /usr/doc/slackpkg+-1.0/setupmultilib.sh

To configure multilib manually (e.g. if you have installed multilib already),
uncomment the correct "MIRRORPLUS['multilib']=...",
and uncomment "PKGS_PRIORITY=( multilib:.* )",
and add multilib to the REPOPLUS list.

To install multilib manually, launch:
# slackpkg update gpg
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg upgrade-all
# slackpkg install multilib

After that, you can keep multilib up-to-date by launching:
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg upgrade-all
and re-running 'slackpkg install multilib' if 'slackpkg install-new' has found
any new packages.

To uninstall multilib, you must remove 'multilib:.*' from PKGS_PRIORITY and from
REPOPLUS (but do not delete the related MIRRORPLUS line), then launch:
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg remove multilib
Note: this does NOT remove the core multilib packages, because they affect the
64bit system. You must remove these by launching:
# slackpkg upgrade-all
then delete or comment the related MIRRORPLUS line, and finally launch
# slackpkg update

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KTOWN (LATEST KDE)

If you want to install the latest KDE packages from AlienBOB's ktown repository
(presently 4.11.1), add "PKGS_PRIORITY=( ktown:.* )" then launch:
# slackpkg update gpg
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg install ktown
# slackpkg upgrade-all
Do not forget to read the special instructions from
  http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/alien-kde/current/latest/
because you may need to remove some Slackware KDE packages. At the time of
writing, these packages are:
# slackpkg remove kdeadmin kdenetwork kdesdk kdetoys

After that, you can keep the ktown KDE up-to-date by launching:
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg upgrade-all

To restore the Slackware KDE, remove 'ktown:.*' from PKGS_PRIORITY and from
REPOPLUS (but do not delete the related MIRRORPLUS line), then launch:
# slackpkg update
# slackpkg upgrade-all
# slackpkg install kde
# slackpkg remove ktown
then delete or comment the related MIRRORPLUS line and launch:
# slackpkg update

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PERSONAL PACKAGES

If you build some packages yourself, you can install these without
installpkg, by using slackpkg+. This helps you to track the install/upgrade,
and reduces the possibility of errors. You do NOT need to create a personal
repository with a gpg-key and metadata every time you build a package; also
you do NOT need to modify your slackpkgplus.conf file or launch 'slackpkg
update'.

You can:

1) install/upgrade/reinstall a single package by passing the full file name
   (optionally with absolute or relative path), for example
   # slackpkg install file:package-1.0-noarch-1my.txz
   or
   # slackpkg upgrade file:../repo/package-2.0-noarch-1my.txz

2) install/upgrade/reinstall all packages in a single directory (but not in a
   subtree) by passing a directory name (optionally with absolute or relative
   path), for example
   # slackpkg install dir:/myrep
   or
   # slackpkg upgrade dir:./test/package/
   or
   # slackpkg reinstall .

   Note: '.' is an alias of 'dir:./', but only that alias exists.
   'slackpkg install ./' (or /myrepo/ or ./package.txz) generates an error,
   because in standard slackpkg you can specify a FILE as input, so in
   'slackpkg install ./list.txt' list.txt must be a plain file containing a list
   of packages to install (see man slackpkg)

   If a directory contains the same package with two different versions,
   slackpkg shows the 'alphabetically' highest, so pkg-9.1 will be listed
   instead of pkg-8, but pkg-9 will be listed instead of pkg-10.
   Sorry... this is a slackpkg limitation!

   Tip: if you want to use dir:/myrepo to track your installations and you have
   lost the original txz/tgz file, you can simply create an empty file; this
   fools slackpkg+, which only searches for file name and not for contents
   (unless you run slackpkg reinstall on these packages ;))  So, by doing
   # touch mypkg1-1.0-noarch-1my.tgz
   # touch mysecondpkg-1.1-noarch-2my.txz
   (where mypkg1 and mysecondpkg are already installed packages),
   'slackpkg install .' (or upgrade) does not show you those packages, but
   'slackpkg reinstall .' DOES show them (so do not continue the installation)

NOTE: slackpkg+ will skip the gpg and md5 check for personal packages!!

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REMOTE PACKAGES WITHOUT METADATA

Some users share packages on their personal sites, but do not create metadata
files (particularly if they share only a few packages). To install one of these
packages, you could download it and install it manually. But now with slackpkg+
you can specify a direct URL for the package that will automatically download
and install/upgrade the package.

You can:

1) install/upgrade/reinstall a single package by specifying the complete url:
   # slackpkg install http://site/path/package-1.0-noarch-1my.txz
   For example, you may use this function to install a snapshot of slackpkg+
   (that is not available with 'slackpkg upgrade slackpkg+' because it is a beta
   version):
   # slackpkg upgrade http://www.slakfinder.org/slackpkg+/pkg/slackpkg+-20130905.2-noarch-1mt.txz

2) install/upgrade/reinstall all packages in a single remote directory (but not
   in a subtree) even if the site owner does not create metadata:
   # slackpkg install http://site/path/

   Note: this function requires lftp and may fail if the server does not support
   Directory Listing or if there is a index.html in the path.

NOTE: slackpkg+ will skip the gpg and md5 check for remote packages without
metadata!!

------


FURTHER INFORMATION

The AlienBOB article about slackpkg+:
  http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/introducing-slackpkg-an-extension-to-slackpkg-for-3rd-party-repositories/

For questions, suggestions or contributions, you can email me at
zerouno@slacky.it or use the linuxquestions forum:
  http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?p=4940074

You can find slackpkg+ on sourceforge:
  https://sourceforge.net/projects/slackpkgplus