Salix Forums

Hi,

Salix has a very interesting option to install a [core] system. I'm curious about how you did manage choosing which packages go into [core], and which packages don't.

A few years ago, I pondered the idea of writing a set of tagfiles for what I would call a "Slackware Server install". A base system, commandline only, where I could easily install any services (Apache, MySQL, Bind, DHCP, MPD, whatever) on top. Doing this with Slackware was harder than it would seem. Some folks on alt.os.linux.slackware had tried the same thing, and there seem to be two different approaches.

1) Install A, AP, D, E, F, K, L and N and leave out KDE, X and XAP. Very simple.

2) Try to follow the Linux From Scratch Project and do the same thing with Slackware (Linux From Slack, sort of).

Problems with these approaches :

1) Some packages in AP seem to need things in X (like the GVim part in Vim, or some PHP stuff requiring obscure X11 libs).

2) Installing the whole load of L always leaves me pondering about the possible bloat. Something like "so I really need libmusicbrainz or a52dec on a server?!?"

So I thought: why not ask you guys? How do you go about this? Just curious.

The process was something like:

1. Install a minimal slackware system (a, ap, d, l, n). Some packages that were obviously not needed were eliminated at this point (libjpeg for example)
2. Go through the list of installed packages and remove anything not really needed

It took quite a while and a lot of testing to finalize the list of packages.

Here's the reason I'm asking this in the first place. I like to use the same distro on servers and desktops. But recently, CentOS gave me some headaches, because the packages are getting really old, which causes more and more troubles. Debian stable is bleeding edge compared to RHEL. So when I gave Salix OS a shot, I thought something like: hey, Salix OS on desktops and Slackware on servers, that could be a winning combination.

Now, of course, you guys did all the hard work by putting together the [core] system, which amounts more or less to the same than installing a minimal Slack. Maybe even using Salix would be better, for some reasons (slapt-get, default to UTF-8, ...). But then, usually I rent dedicated servers (OVH, Ikoula), and these folks usually only have the "big" players on offer : CentOS, Debian and Slackware.

So my question : if I consider a [core] Salix system and put exactly these packages in my tagfiles, do I get the same thing, minor details like artwork excepted?

Yes you do. There are only a few salix specific packages in a core installation, almost everything is included in slackware anyway. For the list of packages, look in our svn repository, in the lists inside the iso-creation directory.

PS: There is no artwork in core.

Thanks for the hint. I took a peek in your SVN, and there's one thing I notice : how clean your work is.

I figured out the CORE list, and that's indeed a good starting point for a minimal Slack install (say, on a dedicated server). One thing that puzzles me. How do you manage to get all the dependency information for the original Slackware packages, since Slackware doesn't provide them? Is there some tool which analyzes each and every package (using ld and the likes) and then "tells" the package manager (slapt-get) which package needs which? I'm no lamer for RTFM, so a curt pointer to some existing documentation will do.

kikinovak wrote:Thanks for the hint. I took a peek in your SVN, and there's one thing I notice : how clean your work is.

I figured out the CORE list, and that's indeed a good starting point for a minimal Slack install (say, on a dedicated server). One thing that puzzles me. How do you manage to get all the dependency information for the original Slackware packages, since Slackware doesn't provide them? Is there some tool which analyzes each and every package (using ld and the likes) and then "tells" the package manager (slapt-get) which package needs which? I'm no lamer for RTFM, so a curt pointer to some existing documentation will do.

depfinder

gapan wrote:depfinder

+ some human intervention (as I was told by a guy named gapan)