Tracking tagfiles

avoiding Slackpkg install-new

The problem

This is basically what slackpkg install-new is doing, as it assumes you’ve got a full slackware system installed.

mv -f ChangeLog.txt ChangeLog.txt.old
wget http://nephtys.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/slackware/slackware64-current/ChangeLog.txt

grep Added.$ ChangeLog.txt | sort -u | grep ^a/
grep Removed. ChangeLog.txt | sort -u | grep ^a/

grep Added.$ ChangeLog.txt | sort -u | grep ^ap/
grep Removed. ChangeLog.txt | sort -u | grep ^ap/

Problem is, we don’t want to install all the new packages — in view keep our system small.

The solution

Here’s how to track new packages that are added into the game.

Get the original tag files from latest release

mirror=http://nephtys.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/slackware/

mkdir 142/
cd 142/
    for set in a ap d e f k kde l n t tcl x xap xfce y; do
    wget -q -O - $mirror/slackware64-14.2/slackware64/$set/tagfile > tagfile-$set
    done; unset set
cd ../

also get the lastest current tag files

mkdir current/
cd current/
    for set in a ap d e f k kde l n t tcl x xap xfce y; do
            wget -q -O - $mirror/slackware64-current/slackware64/$set/tagfile > tagfile-$set
    done; unset set
    cd ../

you are now ready to watch the changes on ADD and REC tagged packages

for set in a ap d e f k kde l n t tcl x xap xfce y; do
    diff -bu 142/tagfile-$set current/tagfile-$set | grep -E '^(\+|-)' | grpe -v :OPT
done; unset set

you could also want to watch only truly mandatory (ADD) packages however experience shows of those depend on other packages that are only REC. Besides, some newly added mandatory packages are not marked as ADD such as libtirpc and elogind.

now if you want to track only truly mandatory packages (ADD), you would do

    ... | grep -vE ':REC|:OPT'

Daily cron job

This dirty trick is also available as a script you can put in a cron job for that purpose, and get informed by email whenever there are ADD and REC tag changes in Slackware current.

crontab -e

20 5 * * 0 /root/tagdiff.bash 2>&1

Results

https://lab.nethence.com/tagfiles/

Resources

[SOLVED] whitelist for slackpkg https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/whitelist-for-slackpkg-4175632393/

[SOLVED] whitelist for slackpkg https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/whitelist-for-slackpkg-4175632393/page2.html

[SOLVED] Blacklist question https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/blacklist-question-4175590289/

confused by slackpkg upgrade-all and install-new https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/confused-by-slackpkg-upgrade-all-and-install-new-4175453134/#post4907020

slackpkg https://docs.slackware.com/slackware:slackpkg