Home

EN · EL · FR · ES · IT · RU · ZH · AR · HI · PT · DE

slacker

slackpkg + slackpkg+ in one - a Slackware package manager written in Rust.

slacker gives you full slackpkg action parity and slackpkg+-style multi-repo priority resolution in a single, fast, dependency-light binary. The official mirror is just one repository whose priority you choose, so it can sit anywhere in your stack - and a distinct, high priority locks a repository's packages so nothing of lower priority can ever silently replace or downgrade them.

%%{init: {'theme':'base','themeVariables':{'primaryColor':'#161b22','primaryBorderColor':'#1f6feb','primaryTextColor':'#e6edf3','lineColor':'#6e7781','fontFamily':'monospace'}}}%%
flowchart LR
  Q["a package name"] --> R{"highest-priority repo<br/>that offers it"}
  R --> W["that build is installed"]
  P["repo:name pin"] -. "the only override" .-> R
  classDef grey fill:#0d1117,stroke:#6e7781,color:#8b949e;
  classDef blue fill:#0d1117,stroke:#1f6feb,color:#e6edf3;
  classDef green fill:#0d1117,stroke:#2ea043,color:#e6edf3;
  class Q,P grey
  class R blue
  class W green

Loading

Status: beta / work in progress. slacker builds and runs on Slackware -current - 64-bit (x86_64) and, as of 0.9.0, 32-bit (i586/i686) - and is offered for testers. It is not built for Slackware 15.0 and never will be. See Status and Roadmap.

---

Why slacker

• One tool, many repositories. The official mirror, extra/testing/patches, alienbob, conraid, ktown, your own - all in a single priority-ordered model.
• Priority above all. An installed package is never silently migrated to a different repository or downgraded. Give a repo a high priority and its packages are protected - only an explicit repo:name pin overrides it. See Repositories and Priority.
• Honest verification. GPG on every update, per-package signatures at install, trust-on-first-use key pinning, and a quarantine model for misbehaving repos. See Security.
• A real history command. A newest-first timeline of every package change on the box - installed, upgraded, reinstalled, removed - even changes made by other tools. See Package History.
• Thin by design. It never reimplements installpkg/upgradepkg/removepkg, gpg, or bzip2 - it calls the tools Slackware already ships.
• Plain text, everywhere. Everything you edit is a plain-text file under /etc/slacker/.

---

Quick start

After installing the package, you edit two files and run a few commands:

# 1) find the fastest fresh mirror, then activate exactly one in /etc/slacker/mirrors
slacker find-mirror
$EDITOR /etc/slacker/mirrors

# 2) set your repo priorities
$EDITOR /etc/slacker/repos

# 3) check the setup - works even before update, and lists what to do next
slacker status

# 4) import keys once, then refresh
slacker update gpg
slacker update
slacker install-new
slacker upgrade-all

Full walkthrough: Quick Start.

---

Documentation

Installation	binary package and building from source
Quick Start	first-time setup, step by step
Configuration	slacker.conf, mirrors, repos, blacklist
Repositories and Priority	the priority model, subtree, pins, @ selectors
Commands	full reference for all 35 actions
Common Workflows	the recipes you will actually use
Distribution Upgrade	upgrade-dist - moving to a new Slackware release
Package History	the history command
Dependencies	.dep resolution
Docker	the minimal container image and its resolve-stock bootstrap
Security	GPG, key pinning, verification, quarantine
Blacklist	freezing and hiding packages
Templates	snapshot and replay package sets
Comparison	slacker vs slackpkg vs slackpkg+
FAQ	troubleshooting and common questions
Contributing	architecture and how to build/test
Building and Releasing	freezing dependencies for a distro package
Status and Roadmap	what works today, what is planned
The Emblem	the labyrinth logo and where it comes from

---

slacker is free software under the Apache License 2.0, by Ioannis Anagnostakis (rizitis). Sources: https://forge.slackware.nl/rizitis/slacker.