Adding more repositories

[rsal]

Will it be OK if I add 5 more repositories to the 3 already present in slapt-getrc file:

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# already present:
SOURCE=http://salix.hostingxtreme.com/i486/14.1/:CUSTOM
SOURCE=http://salix.hostingxtreme.com/i486/slackware-14.1/:PREFERRED
SOURCE=http://salix.hostingxtreme.com/i486/slackware-14.1/extra/:PREFERRED
# more added: 
SOURCE=http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/14.1/:OFFICIAL
SOURCE=http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/sbrepos/14.1/x86/:OFFICIAL
SOURCE=http://repository.slacky.eu/
SOURCE=http://packages.slackonly.com/pub/packages
SOURCE=http://ponce.cc/slackware

The preference has been rearranged.

[gapan]

Once again:

http://docs.salixos.org/wiki/Can_I_use_ ... itories%3F

[rsal]

Which of the ones I listed handle dependencies?

[gapan]

That wiki page I linked to you twice, specifically states "you should know what you are doing". You obviously don't. I'll just stop here.

[laprjns]

Which of the ones I listed handle dependencies?

Well to answer your question, only one will handle dependencies, three will work and get you a listing of available packages for install, but no dependency resolution and one will not work at all. In order for slapt-get to work with a repo, all that is required is the PACKAGES.TXT and CHECKSUMS.md5 file. The PACKAGE.TXT provides the meta data, including package name, version, package description, and dependance information. CHECKSUM.md5 is used to check the validity of the downloaded package. So for the one repo that you listed that does resolve dependance, slacky, it has the two files and the dependency information for each package is populated in the file. The three repo that will work, but will not resolve dependencies, have the two files, but there is no dependency information in the PACKAGE.TXT files. The ponce repo has neither file so it will not work at all.

Having said all that, it is an absolutely bad idea to add third party repos to slapt-getrc. If you can't find a package in one of the official repos (Salix, Slackware, SBo) using slapt-ger, slapt-src or spi, the you can always download it and install using spkg. The chance of screwing up your system is much greater than any advantage that a 3rd party repo will provide.

[rsal]

Thanks for a clear explanation.

[mimosa]

Just as important as the question of dependency resolution are the two other aspects mentioned in the wiki page gapan linked to: package quality, and consistency with Salix. For both reasons, it makes sense to install third party packages on a case-by-case basis, if at all. In an important sense, a Linux distribution is its repositories, which contain packages built according to more or less rigorous quality criteria and procedures, which are then tested against one another during the beta phase. Salix carries over from its base distro, Slackware, a somewhat conservative and rigorous approach that favours stability. To the extent that you add outside packages, you aren't really running Slackware / Salix any more. Obviously, in the case of particular applications that may not be available in the repositories, the main danger is that the added software won't work, but adding whole repositories is actually quite likely to break your system, and for no benefit. Your first port of call should be Slackbuilds (Sourcery) in any case, since these will at least be built against your running system.

I think all these points are explained in the Salix Startup Guide, link on homepage.

[rsal]

I believe Sourcery does not take care of dependencies, but I can use spi (Salix package manager) which can do dependency handling.

[ChuangTzu]

Well said Mimosa.

rsal, a slight correction: sourcery does handle depends, unless you are missing a program from full slackware install. For instance if you want to build kesspassx, you first need qt from slapt-get then sourcery will build it just find. It will find all slackbuild depends with no problem. Of course spi will handle all Slackware, slackbuild and Salix repos.

[salix_user]

By default, we have

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SOURCE=http://slackware.uk/salix/i486/slackware-14.2/:OFFICIAL
SOURCE=http://slackware.uk/salix/i486/slackware-14.2/extra/:OFFICIAL
SOURCE=http://slackware.uk/salix/i486/14.2/:PREFERRED
SOURCE=http://slackware.uk/salix/i486/extra-14.2/:OFFICIAL

But there is one more part of salix's repos
http://slackware.uk/salix/i486/slackware-14.2/patches/

Why is it not included in the main list by default ?
Does it make sense to include it in the main list ?