slacker

slackpkg + slackpkg+ in one — a Slackware package manager written in Rust.

slacker gives you full slackpkg action parity and slackpkg+-style multi-repo priority resolution in a single, fast, dependency-light binary. The official mirror is just one repository whose priority you choose, so it can sit anywhere in your stack — and a distinct, high priority locks a repository's packages so nothing of lower priority can ever silently replace or downgrade them.

%%{init: {'theme':'base','themeVariables':{'primaryColor':'#161b22','primaryBorderColor':'#1f6feb','primaryTextColor':'#e6edf3','lineColor':'#6e7781','fontFamily':'monospace'}}}%%
flowchart LR
  Q["a package name"] --> R{"highest-priority repo<br/>that offers it"}
  R --> W["that build is installed"]
  P["repo:name pin"] -. "the only override" .-> R
  classDef grey fill:#0d1117,stroke:#6e7781,color:#8b949e;
  classDef blue fill:#0d1117,stroke:#1f6feb,color:#e6edf3;
  classDef green fill:#0d1117,stroke:#2ea043,color:#e6edf3;
  class Q,P grey
  class R blue
  class W green

Status: beta / work in progress. slacker builds and runs on Slackware64-current and is offered for testers. It is not built for Slackware 15.0 and never will be; 32-bit -current support is coming. See Status and Roadmap.

---

Why slacker

• One tool, many repositories. The official mirror, extra/testing/patches, alienbob, conraid, ktown, your own — all in a single priority-ordered model.
• Priority above all. An installed package is never silently migrated to a different repository or downgraded. Give a repo a high priority and its packages are protected — only an explicit repo:name pin overrides it. See Repositories and Priority.
• Honest verification. GPG on every update, per-package signatures at install, trust-on-first-use key pinning, and a quarantine model for misbehaving repos. See Security.
• A real history command. A newest-first timeline of every package change on the box — installed, upgraded, reinstalled, removed — even changes made by other tools. See Package History.
• Thin by design. It never reimplements installpkg/upgradepkg/removepkg, gpg, or bzip2 — it calls the tools Slackware already ships.
• Plain text, everywhere. Everything you edit is a plain-text file under /etc/slacker/.

---

Quick start

After installing the package, you edit two files and run two commands:

# 1) pick exactly one mirror
$EDITOR /etc/slacker/mirrors

# 2) set your repo priorities
$EDITOR /etc/slacker/repos

# 3) import keys once, then refresh and check
slacker update gpg
slacker update
slacker status

Full walkthrough: Quick Start.

---

Documentation

Installation	binary package and building from source
Quick Start	first-time setup, step by step
Configuration	slacker.conf, mirrors, repos, blacklist
Repositories and Priority	the priority model, subtree, pins, @ selectors
Commands	full reference for all 31 actions
Common Workflows	the recipes you will actually use
Package History	the history command
Dependencies	.dep resolution
Security	GPG, key pinning, verification, quarantine
Blacklist	freezing and hiding packages
Templates	snapshot and replay package sets
Comparison	slacker vs slackpkg vs slackpkg+
FAQ	troubleshooting and common questions
Contributing	architecture and how to build/test
Building and Releasing	freezing dependencies for a distro package
Status and Roadmap	what works today, what is planned

---

slacker is free software under the Apache License 2.0, by Ioannis Anagnostakis (rizitis). Sources: https://forge.slackware.nl/rizitis/slacker.