Slackware multisbo

A bash wrapper for sbopkg that recursively resolves and installs SlackBuild packages and their dependencies from SlackBuilds.org.

Overview

multisbo automates the installation of a target SlackBuild package and all its required dependencies as defined in the .info file’s REQUIRES field. It handles dependency trees and several edge cases that the standard sbopkg tool does not cover automatically.

Features

• Recursive dependency resolution with cycle detection.
• Respects the REQUIRES field of each .info file.
• Non‑interactive operation by default (using sbopkg -B -k -e continue); interactive mode available via --interactive.
• Caches all .info file locations after the first run to speed up subsequent invocations.
• Pre‑downloads all source tarballs (handles multi‑file DOWNLOAD entries).
• Falls back to a direct SlackBuild + installpkg when sbopkg fails – for example, when it mishandles redirected GitHub URLs, multi‑line DOWNLOAD entries, or MD5 checksum ordering.
• Logs all actions to /tmp/multisbo.log.
• Package detection: checks /var/log/packages/ before attempting installation.

Requirements

• Slackware Linux (tested on 15.0 and -current).
• sbopkg (installed and configured with a synced SBo repository).
• sudo privileges to run sbopkg and installpkg.
• Standard shell utilities: grep, sed, tr, find, ls, wget, installpkg, bc.

Installation

1. Install sbopkg:

   wget https://github.com/sbopkg/sbopkg/releases/download/0.38.3/sbopkg-0.38.3-noarch-1_wsr.tgz
   sudo installpkg sbopkg-0.38.3-noarch-1_wsr.tgz

2. Download the script

   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/annemedia/multisbo/refs/heads/main/multisbo

3. Make it executable:

   chmod +x multisbo

4. Move it to bin (e.g., /usr/sbin/, ~/bin/ or /usr/local/bin/).

   sudo mv multisbo /usr/sbin/

5. Ensure sbopkg is synced:

   sudo sbopkg -r

Usage

multisbo [OPTIONS] <package_name>

Options

Option	Description
--interactive	Run sbopkg in interactive mode (without -B -k -e continue).
-h, --help	Display help and exit.

Examples

Install letsencrypt without confirmation:

multisbo letsencrypt

Install letsencrypt, interactively:

multisbo --interactive letsencrypt

Behaviour

1. Determines the Slackware version from /etc/slackware-version (fallback: 15.0).
2. Builds or loads a persistent cache of all .info file locations (stored in ~/.cache/multisbo/).
3. Recursively examines the target package’s REQUIRES field.
4. For each package not already installed:
   • Downloads all source files defined in DOWNLOAD (and DOWNLOAD_x86_64, etc.) into /var/cache/sbopkg/.
   • Executes sbopkg -B -k -e continue -i <package>.
   • If sbopkg succeeds (exit 0) or fails with exit 1 but the package appears in /var/log/packages/, the package is considered installed.
   • If sbopkg fails and the package is not installed, the script falls back to a direct build: it runs the SlackBuild script and installs the resulting package with installpkg.
5. Records any failures and presents a summary at the end.

Limitations

• sbopkg itself contains bugs with multi‑line DOWNLOAD and swapped MD5 checksums; multisbo works around these via the direct build fallback.
• The persistent cache is not automatically updated when the SBo repository changes (e.g., after sbopkg -r). If you sync the repository, delete the cache file (~/.cache/multisbo/<version>.cache) to force a rebuild.
• If a circular dependency is detected (e.g., package A requires B, and B requires A), the script aborts with an error message. It does not attempt to break the cycle automatically.

Logging

All operations are logged to /tmp/multisbo.log. The log includes timestamps, executed commands, and all output from sbopkg, wget, and SlackBuild scripts.

License

This script is released under the CC0 1.0 Universal. See the LICENSE file for details.

Collab

multisbo was created to make SlackBuilds.org dependency handling more accessible to end users. It works alongside sbopkg, automating the recursive installation of required packages and providing a fallback build mechanism for edge cases where sbopkg alone would need manual intervention. Contributions and issue reports are welcome.