[Slackbuilds-users] Sbopkg 0.27.0 released

Thu Feb 26 15:21:40 UTC 2009

A new version 0.27.0 of sbopkg has been released.  Once again, I have
had great assistance from several contributors in the form of feature
requests, bug reports, and patches.  I would like to especially thank
Mauro Giachero and slakmagik for their hard work in reviewing code,
providing patches, and offering excellent advice and suggestions.

This release brings many bug fixes and new features.  Please be aware
that there are some new variables for sbopkg.conf, so if you are
upgrading, be sure to check out the sbopkg.conf.new and merge the
changes.

Here are a few of the notable items from the ChangeLog.txt:

  * Commit a patch that adds a new sbopkg.conf configuration variable,
    QUEUEDIR, where users can define where saved queues are stored; also, when
    the user wants to load a saved queue, show a list of available saved
    queues; thanks to slakmagik for the patch.
  * Add ability to search for keywords in the README files using regular
    expressions; this new 'string search' can also be narrowed to only search
    installed packages; thanks to slakmagik for the original patch and
    implementation and thanks to both slakmagik and Mauro Giachero for
    cleaning it up and addressing minor issues before the commit.
  * Add ability to view a diff of an edited .info or SlackBuild file before
    choosing which one to use; this feature adds two configuration variables
    to the sbopkg.conf file: DIFF and DIFFOPTS; thanks to Phillip Warner for
    the suggestion and thanks to Mauro Giachero for helping debug/improve my
    original implemenation.
  * Add ability to view more files in each application's folder, i.e.
    doinst.sh, or *.desktop files; thanks to Phillip Warner for the suggestion
    and thanks to slakmagik for the patch implementing this feature.
  * Rework the check for root:root permissions when installing packages; now,
    if the package does not have root:root permissions, sbopkg will display
    the output of ls -l <packagename> and ask if the user wishes to install or
    abort, rather than only aborting.
  * Move the -q option to -g (general search) in order to make way for -q,
    'quiet mode' where the output of some of the command line options (i.e.
    the command line progressbar) can be minimized.  More quieting will likely
    occur in future releases.  Thanks to alkos333 for the feature request.
  * Implement a workaround so that the dialog interface now works better with
    GNU Screen and rxvt-based terminals. Thanks to Phillip Warner for raising
    the issue and thanks to Mauro Giachero for working on the implementation.
  * Include a French translation of the two sbopkg man pages.  For now, these
    man pages will be included in the /doc directory until I have time to
    figure out whether they can be automatically installed in place of the
    English ones depending on a locale setting.  In any event, I would like to
    extend my thanks to Marie-Claude Collilieux for providing this first
    translation for sbopkg.  I am sure folks will appreciate the work she put
    into it.  If anyone else wants to follow her lead and provide some other
    translations, I would be happy to include them.  Thanks Marie-Claude!
  * Add in several patches from slakmagik that lets the user choose from saved
    queues, modifies how the saved queues and backup queues work, and modifies
    several other queue-related functions and menus.  Many thanks to slakmagik
    for his continually excellent contributions.
  * Implement an 'autoqueue' by allowing the user to specify queue names to
    '-b' and '-i' and by adding a -e option whereby the user can specify what
    to do on errors (stop, ask, or continue).  Thanks to Alan Hicks for
    suggesting this feature and thanks to Mauro Giachero for the
    implementation.

The full ChangeLog.txt can be read here:
http://www.sbopkg.org/files/ChangeLog.txt

So, to recap, there are three new variables for sbopkg.conf:
QUEUEDIR, DIFF, and DIFFOPTS.  These are explained in the sbopkg.conf(5)
man page and need to be added to your current sbopkg.conf if you are
upgrading.

A noarch package and source tarball for version 0.27.0 can be found at
the sbopkg project website:

http://www.sbopkg.org

I would also like to make an important announcement about upcoming
versions of sbopkg.  Now that 0.27.0 is out the door, we are going to
take some time off, and then turn our attention to an overall code
review/audit with an eye towards making the code more efficient with
less bugs.  It is unlikely that new features will be implemented.  Along
with this review, we will be removing the 'user mode' support from
sbopkg and changing the codebase so sbopkg runs out of /usr/sbin and
requires root privileges, just like several other similar Slackware
package tools.  Additionally, we will be reviewing the file and
directory layout for sbopkg-related items to consider whether things
need to be moved.  Personally, I am leaning towards moving everything
into /var/lib/sbopkg, so there would be
/var/lib/sbopkg/{repo,tmp,cache,queues} etc., but we have not spent much
time discussing this.  If you have any thoughts on what would be a set
of sensible defaults in this area, please feel free to speak up.
Obviously, if the directory structure is moved, this will require future
user intervention in the form of moving your local repo, or adjusting
the sbopkg.conf back to where you want things to be stored.

Anyway, the point here is simply to let folks know what is on the
horizon for future releases.  There is no timetable for when the post
0.27.0 release will occur, but this next major release will probably
take longer than past releases.  I have created a 0.27.0-stable branch
in SVN so we can backport fixes and address issues in the 0.27.0
release as they come up.

Again, I would like to thank all the contributors to sbopkg.  This
utility is greatly benefiting from the feedback and assistance of many
individuals.

Enjoy!

-- 
Chess Griffin
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