One more Thread on things 'Slackpkg' .

Hello All , As mentioned in the subject line this is one more attempt to educate myself & keep my CRON Script in line with newer options showing up in slackpkg .
Please no mentions that slackpkg shouldn't be run as a cron script it is and for the forseeable future will have to remain so .

One beef is that even with , -batch=on & -default_answer=y , I still get the 'Select what you want file-by-file' options floating around in the output . Which My script in its present form is unable to direct slackpkg to do what I wish to have happen .
ALSO Please note the wonderful escape codes plunked into output shown below .

My hopes are to ...
1 ) Not have the escape output from a manually run command when I am usung -batch=on
2 ) A way of Keeping the previous *.conf files unchanged .
3 ) A way of getting a DIFF in the output from the cron run . Hopefully using slackpkg's selection of diff .

ie: ...

Select what you want file-by-file 

/etc/bluetooth/input.conf.new - ^[7(K)eep
^[8(O)verwrite
^[8(R)emove
^[8(D)iff
^[8(M)erge
^[8(V)imdiff
^[8K

Please note the bash script that is in use is attached .
NS4-do-slackpkg-for-updates.sh.txt

as well as an output file ...
cron_do-slackpkg-for-updates.sh_of_20231221012133.txt

Tia , JimL

what happened here:

usr/libexec/slackpkg/functions.d/post-functions.sh: line 189: [: 19: unary operator expected

if [ $(( newcount + TEXTLINES )) -lt $ROWS ] || [ "${BATCH}" = "on" ]; then

Best guess: $ROWS is undefined because the script was running as a cron job and therefore wasn't outputting to a terminal window.

I only cron slackpkg to get emailed update notifications, which I think is okay... but what are you saying you do with your cron job?

Originally Posted by reddog83 what happened here:

The fix for that was here: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...0/#post6235743

Originally Posted by babydr One beef is that even with , -batch=on & -default_answer=y , I still get the 'Select what you want file-by-file' options floating around in the output . ALSO Please note the wonderful escape codes plunked into output shown below . My hopes are to ... 1 ) Not have the escape output from a manually run command when I am usung -batch=on 2 ) A way of Keeping the previous *.conf files unchanged .

I added a cronjob to simply run '/usr/sbin/slackpkg -batch=on -default_answer=y new-config'. I did not get escape codes nor 'Select what you want file-by-file'. This is the mail message crond sent me:

Searching for NEW configuration files...
Some packages had new configuration files installed (2 new files):

/etc/a2ps.cfg.new
/etc/a2ps-site.cfg.new

What do you want (K/O/R/P)?

        (K)eep the old files and consider .new files later

        (O)verwrite all old files with the new ones. The
           old files will be stored with the suffix .orig

        (R)emove all .new files

        (P)rompt K, O, R selection for every single file
y

OK! Your choice is nothing! slackpkg will Keep the old files for you to deal with later

Your run of 'slackpkg -batch=on -default_answer=y new-config' selected P for (P)rompt K, O, R selection for every single file. Mine did not.

OK, let's look at /usr/libexec/slackpkg/functions.d/post-functions.sh:

    140         # if there is a /etc/slackpkg/post-functions.conf file, it will be
    141         # used to take the pre-defined action to each file specified there.
    142         if [ -f /etc/slackpkg/post-functions.conf ]; then
    143                 NEWCONFIG="/etc/slackpkg/post-functions.conf"
    144         fi
...
    254                 if [ "${BATCH}" = "on" ] && [ -n "${NEWCONFIG}" ]; then
    255                         ANSWER=P
    256 
    257                         # This allows to have a default behaviour for all .new files in batch mode.
    258                         DEF_AUTOANSWER="$(sed -ne 's#^default:\([ORK]\)#\1#p' $NEWCONFIG 2>/dev/null)"
    259                 fi

You must have created file /etc/slackpkg/post-functions.conf to select actions for different .new files. It does not exist originally. What does it contain? Try to rename it. There is only a sample file /etc/slackpkg/post-functions.conf-sample here.

Originally Posted by babydr 3 ) A way of getting a DIFF in the output from the cron run . Hopefully using slackpkg's selection of diff .

How about running a separate diff in your cron script:

find /etc /var/yp /usr/share/vim -type f -name '*.new' \
 ! -name rc.inet1.conf.new ! -name rc.wireless.conf.new ! -name group.new \
 ! -name passwd.new ! -name shadow.new ! -name gshadow.new 2>/dev/null| \
sort -V| while read f; do diff -u ${f%.new} $f;done

Thank You All for the comments & insights .

@Petri Kaukasoina ,
As re: #7 , Yes indeed that file existed and contained (*) , It was placed there as a test iirc , I've renamed it . Next update will see what happens then & report back . But iirc without that my script never ends and/or leaves alot of lost bits lying about .
As re: #5 , And WHY that update to slackpkg Doesn't seem to be affective in my installation of slackpkg is a quandry for me (**) & (***) .
As re: #8 , I could run a diff as a further function of my script , Tho was hoping to leverage slackpkg's than to duplicate the work .

@dchmelik , The intent is to update all packages that have been installed .


(*)

blacklist
# You can list here the .new files and the default action
# to do for each file. The list format is:
# 
# /full/path/of/dot/new/file.new:action
# 
# The action can be:
# 
# O to Overwrite it with the new version
# R to Remove the new file
# K to Keep the current and the .new files
#
# Using "default" as file name, you'll set the action for
# the .new files in batch mode. The action for each file
# takes precedence over the "default" one.
#
# E.g:
#/etc/slackpkg/mirrors.new:K
#/etc/ntp.conf.new:R
#
#
#default:O
default:K

(**)

# slackpkg -h

-h: Unknown option.

slackpkg - version 15.0.10

(***)

Mon Jan 17 22:44:42 UTC 2022
Things haven't quite settled down yet with more bugfixes and a couple of safe
upgrades, so not today folks. But enjoy Slackware's half-birthday anyway! ;-)
ap/slackpkg-15.0.10-noarch-1.txz: Upgraded.
       Fix mirrors.ucr.ac.cr link address (Emmet Ford)
       Remove wroc.pl mirrors (Emmet Ford)
       Remove kddilabs.jp from mirrors (Emmet Ford)
       Unattended usage improvements (PiterPUNK)
       Create file to flag if the system needs restart (PiterPUNK)
       Thanks to Robby Workman.