One of the first steps I perform after installing slackware is to run Slackpkg. Slackpkg is a very powerful utility that allows you to update your installed packages with the most recent version in the slackware release tree. (Packages not included with slackware will not be handled).

Slackpkg now comes as part of the normal slackware install. However if you are running an older distribution or for some reason it is not included you can download it from the Slackpkg website.

To run it we need to complete four steps. Note: You must use the root user to complete these steps.

Step 1: Select a Mirror

As it comes installed no package mirror is selected. To select a mirror we simply edit the mirrors file and uncomment the mirror we wish to use.

vi /etc/slackpkg/mirrors

Step 2: Update Slackpkg

This step simply tells slackpkg to update itself with the most up to date packages from the selected mirror.

slackpkg update

Step 3: Upgrade Packages

This last step tells slackpkg to upgrade all packages in slackware where a newer release has been found on the mirrow.

slackpkg upgrade-all

Once you issue the upgrade command you will be presented with a pre-selected list of packages to upgrade. I simply leave it as is and select ok.

Step 4: Choose config file overwrite

When slackpkg runs it may need to overwrite existing config files. For this reason you will be prompted to keep,overwrite,remove, or prompt per file. I personally choose overwrite and restore what I need from the backup .orig files which get created.