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Slackware's packaging system uses ordinary compressed tar files. The system
allows you to keep track of the packages you install, making it easy to
upgrade or remove them down the road.
Slackware provides an interactive program for managing your packages. You can
use pkgtool to handle adding and removing packages from your system.
You can also use these command line utilities to work with packages. Below is
a brief overview of the commands, however, you should always consult the man
pages before using them.
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installpkg
By typing installpkg [packagename].tgz you can install packages on your
system. There are a few command line options as well:
| -warn |
Generates a report of what would happen if you installed the package
and sends the report to standard out. |
| -m |
Make the contents of the current directory and subdirectories into a
package with the name you specify. |
| -r |
Install the contents of the current directory and subdirectories as a
package with the name you specify. |
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removepkg
In it's simplest form, removepkg will remove the package name you specify. The
general syntax is removepkg packagename. There are a few command line
options that you can specify:
| -warn |
Generates a report of what would happen if you removed the package and
sends the report to standard out. It does not remove the package. |
| -preserve |
This option will reconstruct the package subtree under
/tmp/preserved_packages/packagename, where packagename is the name is
you specify. |
| -copy |
Construct a copy of the package under
/tmp/preserved_packages/packagename, but do not remove it (same effect
as -warn -preserve). |
| -keep |
Save the temporary files created by removepkg. Useful for debugging
purposes. |
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upgradepkg
Upgrades a currently installed package with the package specified. If the
packages have the same name, then you only need to run upgradepkg
packagename to perform the upgrade. If the new package has a different name
than the currently installed package, you must use this syntax:
upgradepkg oldpackagename%newpackagename
Do not add any extra whitespace between pairs of old/new package names.
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makepkg
Creates a new Slackware compatible package. The program uses the contents of
the current directory to create the package. Be sure to take a look at the
manpage for makepkg for information about the embedded scripts that you can
put in a Slackware package.
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explodepkg
Extracts the contents of a Slackware compatible package to the current
directory. It does not execute the embedded scripts in the package. This utility
is most useful for maintenance purposes (exploding a package, updating it, then
rebuilding with makepkg).
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rpm2targz
Converts an RPM (RedHat Package Manager) to a Slackware-compatible package. In
case you ever run across the need to obtain something that is only in RPM
format, this program may come in handy. The syntax is:
rpm2targz [filename].rpm
NOTE: Running rpm2targz will create a .tar.gz file, while running
rpm2tgz will create a .tgz file. The files are exactly the same, the
only difference is the extension format (some people prefer one over the other).
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