Repository package managers

[thenktor]

Even if I like the Xnetpkg frontend, we should look for possible replacements.
We need a GUI and a command line client.

Zendo + zpm: http://zendo.naquadah.org/downloads/
Smart: http://labix.org/smart
slapt-get + gslapt: http://software.jaos.org/
slackpkg: http://www.slackpkg.org/ (command line only)

[gapan]

I vote for slapt-get/gslapt, because of the multiple repo capabilities...

[thenktor]

I vote for Zendo because it IMHO has much better user interface and a great speed. JRD has said, that multi repos are planned, so we should contact sparky about that

[JRD]

Yes, I also vote for zpm/zendo.

Sparky is quite reactive. We must contact him.

[tsuren]

do we really need gui front end?
i vote for zpm - and having Sparky's help in the project this way seems a good idea. on the other hand, i don't really see a need for zendo to be in the package. it's my impression that alcoholix's audience is not new comers to linux, but fairly experienced users - and those who know at least how to use CUI. if this is the case, then perhaps we can leave the GUI front-end as an 'extra'.

[thenktor]

do we really need gui front end?
i vote for zpm - and having Sparky's help in the project this way seems a good idea. on the other hand, i don't really see a need for zendo to be in the package. it's my impression that alcoholix's audience is not new comers to linux, but fairly experienced users - and those who know at least how to use CUI. if this is the case, then perhaps we can leave the GUI front-end as an 'extra'.

Why not provide a GUI? Do you really want to save these few kb for such a good feature? Even as experienced user I'm using the GUI most times (I can see available updates at first sight).

[gapan]

I would be all for zpm/zendo if it could support multiple repos (with user-set priorities) and suggests with/conflicts with...

[thenktor]

I've invited Sparky to the forum, perhaps he can tell us more...

[Sparky]

Hey guys. I can probably add whatever you mean by "multiple repos" to Zendo, if you want to go with it in Alcoholix. Conflicts is already implemented in Zendo, at least nominally, but it's mostly useless because there aren't any slackware repos that actually have conflicts data in them.

I got back from university for the summer a little while ago, so besides work I should have some free time to implement whatever you need. Also, if you decide to do something like Shador said with a since install CD that can install a "Core" or a "Default" version, then maybe something CLI in core and a GUI application in default, wouldn't that be about right?

[gapan]

Sparky, if you can take a look at gslapt and see how multiple repos are handled there.

Basically you can have multiple repos enabled (each one with its own PACKAGES.TXT) and if you search for a package, you search in any of them. Also if package A needs dependency B and B is in a different repo than A, then it should transparently download it anyway. There should also be some priority setting for repositories. If a package is present in more than one repositories, then it should be downloaded and installed from the repository with the highest priority. In gslapt priorities are set as "default < official < preferred < custom". So we could just have a slackware mirror as "default" and our own repos as "official" (so we don't have to host slackware packages in our repos)

If you could add something like that, it would be great!