how do i stay current?

yocompia · 07-18-2003, 07:44 PM

something that occurred to me about my slackware 9.0 is that i don't believe it's current (i.e. no security patches). being entirely new to linux, i have no clue what to download and how to stay current.

a suspicion of mine is that i can download the appropriate sources or patches and integrate existing security updates into the OS. does this have something to do with the slackware-current directories on the ftp servers where i got the slack 9 iso?

Excalibur · 07-18-2003, 09:44 PM

Monitor the patches tree under the distro you are running, (slackware-9.0/patches) The slackware-current tree is for the next up and coming version, work in progress. For security updates you can subscribe to the mail list from the Slackware web site.

yocompia · 07-19-2003, 10:23 AM

i've downloaded the various patches that were available on perdue's ftp server, but i don't know how to use the patches correctly (and i can't find good instructions anywhere).

so, assuming i have a file "patch-silly-app-0.90" and the source is in the directory "silly-app-0.90," how do i actually use the patch? i suspect this is just like patching the kernel, something i didn't understand when i read the README for the kernel source.

Excalibur · 07-19-2003, 06:30 PM

Usually the patches are in a Slack package format that ends with a .tgz extension. Use "pkgtool" to install them. The package has additonal code to execute if something needs to be done special like a symlink or something. It also will know where the old program is located to overwrite or remove as required.

lfur · 07-19-2003, 06:32 PM

yocompia,

you should also check linuxsecurity.com for slackware security fixes:
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/advisories/slackware.html

And it's also a good thing, like Excalibur suggested, to subscribe to their security mail list (slackwares or linuxsecurity's which gives you latest fixes for all the distros).

jymbo · 07-19-2003, 11:42 PM

Here is an easy way to automatically update your Slack.