How do I keep up with all these dependency updates / QMPlay2?
 

I tried to launch QMPlay2, and suddenly it doesn't launch anymore. Slightly flummoxed, I checked the dependencies. I noticed that libass had a very recent update, and maybe that is responsible for it not launching anymnore?

Seeing as dependencies aren't automated, how do I keep track of what is being updated and could be affecting applications? If an application stops working should I look at all its dependencies and reinstall/recompile them?

Short answer: sbopkg, sbotools, slackrepo, sboui, etc.

Longer answer: these tools can track dependencies for SlackBuilds.org packages and let you know when upgrades are available. Some of them will also allow you to automatically rebuild any packages that depend on something that was upgraded.

https://slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/14.2/ChangeLog.txt

or

https://slackbuilds.org/rss/ChangeLog.rss

Thanks, the only one of these I'd heard of was sbopkg. sboui looks good. Slackrepo looks good but hasn't been updated for a long while. It feels a bit like cheating but I think some of these are going to be valuable tools.

Yes, I think I may need to rebuild QMPlay2. Yesterday I tried reinstalling the binary from SlackOnly and that didn't work. It was the lazy way.

These are very useful. I think I'm going to have to make a list of everything I installed through sbopkg [shouldn't be too hard] and also anything I've installed as a pre-compiled binary. I have built a number of packages manually - I don't know if sbopkg lists these as well. Still, my /tmp folder has still not been cleared out since I installed 14.2, so that should go some way to letting me know everything that's been built and installed.

Slackrepo was just recently being worked on. You have to look in idlemoor's GitHub.

https://github.com/idlemoor/slackrepo

That is what I use, but I think that it is not honoring the ARCH in the scripts when it is set to ARCH=noarch. I am trying to investigate that a little more because that could be something I did. It's not that big of a deal until you have a script that is looking for 'noarch' in the package name (like I do).

but unfortunately I've had other priorities in my job :(

"You need to use your annual leave before April. There's a lot in your backlog. Have you finished those non-sprint items yet? You need to use your annual leave before April. There's a lot in your backlog. Have you finished those non-sprint items yet? You need to use your annual leave before April..."

Yes you're right, thanks, and that definitely needs fixing -- sorry :(

LOL, I get it. No worries.

I wasn't going to say anything until I looked into it more because I'm using non-SBo scripts, so I thought it could've been something i did. But thanks for looking into it. :)

So, does this mean we'll see a newly released version in April? ;)

@OP, the older version of slackrepo still works great (if you don't want to run the master branch out of his github). It is, by far, my favorite compiling/packaging tool for Slackware.

Great, thanks a lot, I'll have a look. I only use sbopkg at the moment.

Shortest answer - don't update once you have what you need. The only people I know of who actually need the assumed "latest and greatest" are some software developers. If you are one, I'd suggest using some rolling release like Arch for development, and Slackware for running the things you love and protect.

That is terrible advice, Slackware is a great development release while arch is a maintainers nightmare with absolutely 0 quality control. If you use arch for development you will be spending much more time fixing or working around their broken packages than developing software.

Have you got a link for that? I can't find a working one.

EDIT: I downloaded it from github but am getting 'permission denied' when trying to run ./slackrepo.SlackBuild having logged in as root [su]. Anyone know why this could be?

Prebuilt package has disappeared from Dropbox as well - http://idlemoor.github.io/slackrepo/download.html

I use slackpkg and sbopkg or slapt-get and slapt-src depending on if I am in my Slackware or Salix box. Both do a great job with upgrades. I update Slackware packages when updates are available from Slackware, SBo--is on a as needed basis, often times SBo maintainers upgrade scripts for newness and not security only, and I prefer upgrades for security only. Changelog link Didier posted is a great resource before typing upgrade-all in case there are any (rare) *Caveat emptors.

That is usually because the SlackBuilds are not executable when you get them. You need to:
making sure that you are working in that directory via your terminal.

And if you downloaded the master branch from idlemoor's GitHub, you'll need to extract the zip file, put the whole lot in a directory (or rename) named slackrepo-3.0, compress it as a .tar.gz, then copy the SlackBuild, info, Readme, etc in the same directory as the archive you just made and then run the SlackBuild.

Edit: Here is a copy of 2.0rc1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rr7n61b6ec...1_dbs.txz?dl=0

Always check the md5sum against idlemoor's on the slackrepo website.