Checking if packages have been updated

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phayz
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Joined: 24. Nov 2010, 21:06

Checking if packages have been updated

Post by phayz »

My current main distribution uses a package manager in which all packages have a line which can be used to confirm if the package is up to date or not. For Firefox, for example, it will grab from a web page the latest version available and check this against the version of the package available in the repository. Does Salix have such a capability? I have looked at the Slackbuild format and don't see anything there, I guess because this doesn't apply to Slackware and Salix packages are compatible with Slackware.
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Akuna
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Re: Checking if packages have been updated

Post by Akuna »

Part of the philosophy of Salix (like Slackware) is to prime stability over bleeding edge. So the only automated upgrade mechanism Salix provides is a notifier related to security & bugfix releases from Salix & Slackware official repo.

But there are no automated mechanism in place for novelty alone. This is something that is left for the end user to monitor & take responsibility for if he decides to act on it.
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phayz
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Re: Checking if packages have been updated

Post by phayz »

Akuna, I didn't explain the mechnism very well in my last post. It merely checks if the source/home page hosts a later version and reports the results in an email. There is no automated update mechanism because there's no desire to keep every single package up to date. It can be useful, though, to know for which packages updates are available.

I started my Linux journey with Slackware *MANY* years ago, so it's interesting (only personally) that I am again dabbling with a Slackware-based Linux distribution.

Congratulations on a well-designed and maintained distribution with a very solid base.
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laprjns
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Re: Checking if packages have been updated

Post by laprjns »

phayz wrote:It merely checks if the source/home page hosts a later version and reports the results in an email.
This would seem to be a very useful tool for packagers, especially now that the current branch will be opening up.
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JRD
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Re: Checking if packages have been updated

Post by JRD »

Yes for packagers, it could be usefull. But it's not easy at all. I managed to build such a script for the packages I maintain...It's not easy, because each home page is different and sometimes the format of the page change from one version to another.
I just manage to know if the download page has changed from the last time, nothing more for now.
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thenktor
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Re: Checking if packages have been updated

Post by thenktor »

For some software I just use the email notification service of sites like freshmeat.net or sourceforge.net.
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phayz
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Re: Checking if packages have been updated

Post by phayz »

For what's worth, the Linux distribution I was referring to was Frugalware Linux. Please understand that I am not suggesting that Salix be changed to become Frugalware Linux by another name. Differences exist between Linux distributions for good reason. My suggestion was just that, a suggestion which may or may not have been of interest to Salix users and developers.

The method of checking the latest available version is a one-line command which uses wget and other command-line tools to extrtact information from the home page. The exact command varies from package to package, although there are several common methods for sites such as Google Code and Sourceforge.
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