Configuration

Everything slacker reads is plain text under /etc/slacker/ (override the directory with --config-dir). After installing the package these files are already in place.

/etc/slacker/
├── slacker.conf   KEY=value global settings
├── mirrors        catalogue of official mirrors — uncomment exactly ONE
├── repos          repo priorities/names + external repos + tag-priority lines
├── blacklist      blacklist rules: [@repo] REGEX | [@repo] series/
└── templates/     generated and user-created templates

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slacker.conf

KEY=value, one per line, # for comments.

Key	Default	Meaning
ARCH	auto	Architecture, auto-detected from the installed aaa_base. Set only to force a specific arch (e.g. cross).
ADM_DIR	/var/adm	Slackware pkgtools administrative root — holds packages/, removed_packages/, scripts/, setup/. The Package History command reads it.
CACHE_DIR	/var/cache/slacker	Downloaded metadata, GPG keyring, and package files.
PKG_DB_DIR	ADM_DIR/packages	The installed-package database. Set explicitly only to override the derived location.
RESOLVE_DEPS	yes	Whether .dep files are read to pull in dependencies. See Dependencies.
IGNORE_TAGS	(empty)	Space-separated build tags (e.g. _SBo cf alien) that clean-system must not treat as foreign.
VERIFY	all	Package verification policy. See Security.

ADM_DIR defaults to /var/adm rather than /var/lib/pkgtools on purpose: on a real box removed_packages/ lives under /var/adm/pkgtools/... and is not exposed by name from /var/lib/pkgtools. Only /var/adm exposes the whole set that history needs.

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mirrors

A slackpkg-style catalogue. Uncomment exactly one line for your architecture and release (current vs 15.0; slackware64 for x86_64, slackware for 32-bit). None is active by default; two or more active lines is an error. http://, https://, and file:// are all supported (the last for a local clone, NFS mount, or mounted media).

# /etc/slacker/mirrors  - uncomment ONE line
https://slackware.uk/slackware/slackware64-current/

Change your mirror by changing which line is uncommented. If a mirror is stale, switch to another.

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repos

Two kinds of line.

Binary repository

priority  name  url|mirror|mirror/<subpath>  [official] [immutable] [subtree] [verify=...]

• priority — higher wins; must be distinct across binary repos (a duplicate is a fail-fast error).
• url — a literal URL, the keyword mirror (the active mirror, for the official repo), or mirror/<subpath> (the active mirror with a subpath appended, e.g. mirror/extra — tracks a subtree on whichever mirror you picked, without hardcoding the host).
• flags (any order): official, immutable, subtree, verify=....

The full semantics of the flags, the priority model, and pinning are in Repositories and Priority.

Tag-priority

priority  name  tag        # e.g.  100  SBo  _SBo

Gives packages carrying a build tag a priority on the same scale as repos, so SBo/local/source packages are never silently migrated or downgraded by upgrade-all. Tag-priority lines may share a priority.

Edit this file by hand, or let add-repo / del-repo / add-tag / del-tag do it for you (validated, with a confirmation prompt).

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blacklist

One rule per line, [@repo] PATTERN. PATTERN is a Slackware series when it ends in /, otherwise an unanchored regex matched against the full package id name-version-arch-build. Full reference: Blacklist.

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Environment variables

Variable	Effect
NO_COLOR	Disables all coloured output (also auto-disabled when stdout is not a terminal).
SLACKER_MERGE	External merge tool for new-config's (M)erge action (default vimdiff).
PAGER	Pager for long output (history, show-changelog); defaults to less -FRX.