CruxPorts4Slack 20061113 review

CruxPorts4Slack adapts the "ports" and "pkgmk" commands to allow the use of ports repositories for Crux with Slackware. In the BSD

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Henry Jensen

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CruxPorts4Slack adapts the "ports" and "pkgmk" commands to allow the use of ports repositories for Crux with Slackware.

In the BSD Unix World a ports system means a directory hierarchy (ususally under /usr/ports)
where you can automatically build your own binary packages from source.

The advantage of a ports system is, that the built packages are optimized for your computer. Second advantage is: ports are faster available then binary packages.

In the last years ports systems became popular on Linux, too. A well-known Linux distro with a ports system is Gentoo, another one is Crux (www.crux.nu).

Being a Slackware fan, I decided to switch to Crux, because Slackware hadn't alls the packages I wanted and using ./configure && make && make install (or even checkinstall) wasn't the optimum for me.

At first I was impressed with the ports system of Crux. But building every single package, even the most basic software (e.g. util-linux), was getting on my nerves. And I didn't like the system layout of Crux (they are using devfs) as much as I liked Slackware's.

I thought "Why don't use a mix of the two". Slackware with the Crux ports system - that would be it. Crux binary packages are based on tar.gz, so are Slackware packages. So I switched back to Slack and ported the Crux port system to Slackware. Another reason for making this is, that I will use this system in the next version of DeLi Linux (www.delilinux.de).

Here is the result: With cruxports4slack you can use the crux ports system with Slackware.

Running:

pkginfo
-------
usage: pkginfo [-i|-i package]
options:
-i, --installed list installed packages and their version.
-l, --list package list files owned by the specified package
-h print help and exit

What's New in This Release:
The ability to use alternative Pkgfiles was added.
The httpup files for the contrib and opt repositories were updated.