[Slackbuilds-users] Slackbuild helper script

[Karel Venken]

Enguerrand de Rochefort wrote:
> Hi Karel
>
> One comment I have after scanning through your code is that I like the 
> option to download (even recursively) without actually compiling. I 
> should probably include something similar...
> I take it you made this possible (among other reasons) to be able to 
> apply patches before compiling.
Indeed, also because I could download it in a separate step and work on 
if off line if needed. The download step also does not need to be run as 
root. The same with separation of build and install, you may want to 
work on it, change options etc...
> One thing I wanted to be able to do was to have patches / 
> customization tweaks being applied automatically everytime I compile a 
> package, (i.e. everytime I upgrade it).
> So I am putting patch scripts at a central location that are named 
> after the package name. The install function looks for a patch script 
> once the slackbuild tarball is unpacked and asks me if I want to apply 
> it...
This is definitely missing in my scripts... The only (tiny) changes you 
can do is specified in the HINTS.TXT file if it is available (basically 
limited to adding additional/optional packages as dependencies, change 
versions, show some comments)...
> I think I might look into your code again when I get started with 
> recursive dependency resolution. I saw the postinstall function that 
> looks for changes in the profile, that's definitely one thing I'd have 
> missed in the first attempt, so thanks a lot for sharing.
Feel free to do so, glad I could give some tips. For recursive 
dependency resolution, don't count on it to work well. For instance, 
what you mentioned, even if the script is handling some profile stuff 
-like setting paths for java-, ones you leave it, it is back to the 
original environment settings and you still have to source the .profile 
or logout and login again.

One of my (most important) requirements (as I have a few systems to 
maintain) was to be able to take the script with me on my USB, copy it, 
and launch it. It should do **all the rest** by itself, even downloading 
the SLACKBUILDS.TXT if it is not available on the new system. This is a 
somewhat different goal and as a result, there are much less features, 
like no possibility of viewing info files - when you use my script, you 
are supposed to know what you want to install already, although there is 
a -q option which can give you the proper name and version of the 
package. No interactive menus etc...

But as said, I am happy you can find some usefull tips,...

K.