Pkgtools for Linux From Scratch

This project provides instructions and build scripts for packages in the Linux From Scratch book, allowing users to more easily keep track of and upgrade packages in the LFS system using the pkgtools utilities.

Pkgtools is the package management system used by Slackware. It is one of the simplest package systems available. The tools are actully shell scripts requiring only a Bourne- compatible shell and tar version 1.13. This package management system does not provide any dependency tracking, and build scripts are very simple.

Getting the Required Packages

Tar version 1.13 - 1028 KB:

Dowload: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/tar-1.13.tar.gz

MD5 sum: 402a54bdde58dec411ea844b75cf5804

Dialog - 295 KB

Download: https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-14.2/source/a/dialog/dialog-1.2-20130523.tar.xz

MD5 sum: 2c2b7dd7d1bc6f809ed00739f152648f

How to Install in the Temporary System

Adding pkgtools to Linux From Scratch is very easy. After building all packages in the temporary system (Chapter 5), but before stripping and changing ownership, install the additional packages described in this section.

Installation Tar version 1.13

Configure tar:

./configure --prefix=/tools \
	--disable-nls

Compile the package:

make

If desired, run the test suite. This step is not mandatory. To run the Tar test suite, issue the following command:

make check

Install tar-1.13:

install -m0755 src/tar /tools/bin/tar-1.13

Installation of Pkgtools

Install the shell scripts into the /tools/sbin directory:

for prog in installpkg makepkg removepkg; do
	install -m755 $prog /tools/sbin/
done

Installing in the LFS System

This is the easiest part. Simply run the .SlackBuild scripts provided to create the corresponding package in the same order as is the LFS book. Before we can use the build scripts, however, add the following instructions to Section 6.6 - Creating Essential Files and Symlinks:

for prog in installpkg makepkg removepkg; do
	ln -sv /tools/sbin/$prog /sbin/
done
export USE_TMP_TOOLS=yes

Make sure to run the pkgtools.SlackBuild script before any other scripts. This will ensure that the necessary tools are available during the installation process.

Additionally, run the dialog.SlackBuild script to install the dialog program. Dialog is used by the pkgtool utility to provide a menu-driven, and interactive system in install, remove, or view software packages.

All packages are created in the /tmp directory, and must be installed before creating the next package. To install packages run the following command:

/sbin/installpkg /tmp/<name of package file>