slackmatic News

new slackmatic release, 0.91

2007.06.12

We have posted a new slackmatic release, 0.91. This version has just a couple changes from the previous:

  • defined absolute path to /sbin/makepkg

  • added MYFETCH custom fetch support

The first fixes an annoyance for users who want to run slackmat-build without /sbin in their path. (Thanks Giorgio Moscardi!)

The second is to help provide workarounds for special downloading problems, such as files served with funny urls by php robots. (Thanks Andreas Liebe!)

This release also introduces a minor change in the waybill file format specification. Until all the repos and users are synced up to this release, this change may cause you to get waybill errors with slackmat-build. I regret the annoyance. In the meantime, if you do get waybill errors, just run slackmat-build with the -W option.

In other news:

  • fakeroot has been updated to 1.7.1. If you are running Slackware -current, you will probably need to use this version of fakeroot.

  • Andreas Liebe's great ahl repository has a new url. Please install the latest httpup file here.

we're baaack!

2007.04.23

Hi everyone! After many months of packing, shipping, moving and adjusting, we are now back online and coming to you live and in color from our new home in Togo, West Africa.

To celebrate our relocation, please find a major update to slackmatic with a big bump in release to slackmatic-0.90. New features include:

  • integrated fakeroot: slackmatic is now designed to be run as a non-root user

  • new "waybill" mechanism: verifies a build delivers the expected results

  • new "keep" mechanism: use keep.spec to automatically generate a doinst.sh to protect configuration files in the package across upgrades

  • global slack-desc.in file can generate a complete slack-desc file automatically

  • some man pages

  • many new command-line options

We also have a new "startkit" that makes it even easier to get started with slackmatic. See the quick start guide for more info.

fakeroot

2006.11.30

We have recently added a port of fakeroot to the slackmatic repository.

The purpose of fakeroot is to allow package builds by non-root users. This should reduce the risk (and annoyance) of splattering your filesystem with unwanted files in cases of BUILD.rc specification errors.

Usage is simple:

  1. As root, build and install the fakeroot port as usual.
  2. As a non-priveleged user, make sure /sbin is in your $PATH (for /sbin/makepkg).
  3. As a non-priveleged user, run slackmat-build under fakeroot: 
    $ fakeroot slackmat-build

That's it! The magic of fakeroot gives you a tgz package archive with file permissions as if generated by root, even though built as a non-root user.

Then you simply install/maintain the resulting package as usual (as root) with the standard Slackware package utilities.

If you have any problems using slackmatic with fakeroot, please let us know.

slack on slice

2006.11.30

Some site new: earlier this month we moved hosting of slackmatic to a Xen virtual "slice" at slicehost.

Although Slackware was not offered as a distro option, we managed to build up a mostly stock Slamd64 11.0 installation under /slack without too much difficulty. Then, with a little fancy footwork in the Slice Console Access, we moved the /slack tree into / and hard rebooted.

Voila, slack on slice!

The system seems to be running well. We made a tiny tweak to slackmat-build for Slamd64-compatible CFLAGS, and all of our slackmatic builds to date -- including dietlibc -- have built, installed, and run without issue.

Thanks very much to the Slamd64 project http://www.slamd64.com/ for their fine port of Slackware!

goodbye to "clear"

2006.10.10

Charles Lear has notified us that he will be taking his "clear" port repository off-line.

Charles has been one of the most prolific slackmatic port developers. At the time of his departure he was publishing a total of 65 ports. Many of his ports were targeted specifically at enhancing a Gnome desktop, especially for users of the Freerock Gnome distribution.

We will miss Charles and wish him the best of luck in the future.

In the meantime, we will continue to publish his repo from our own servers. Please see the clear repository to pick up the latest clear.httpup file.

By the way, anyone who wants to pick up these ports for their own repo is most welcome!

more news ...