Editing Slapt-get (section)

== Dependencies ==

slapt-get does not provide [[Coupling (computer science)|dependency]] resolution for packages included within the [[Slackware]] distribution. It does, however, provide a framework for dependency resolution<ref name=slaptgetfaq /> in [[Slackware]] compatible packages similar in fashion to the hand-tuned method [[Advanced Packaging Tool|APT]] utilizes.<ref name=debianpolicymanual>{{cite web |url=https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html#s-binarydeps |title=7. Declaring relationships between packages |website=debian.org |access-date=September 10, 2019}}</ref> Several package sources and [[Slackware]] based distributions take advantage of this functionality.  Hard, soft, and conditional dependencies along with package conflicts and complementary package suggestions can be expressed using the slapt-get framework.

Adding dependency information requires no modification to the packages themselves.  Rather, the package listing file, PACKAGES.TXT, is used to specify these relationships.  This file is provided by [[Patrick Volkerding]] and is similar to the Packages.gz file in use by [[Debian]].  Several scripts are available to generate the PACKAGES.TXT file from a group of packages.  The file format used by [[Patrick Volkerding]] is extended by adding a few extra lines per package.  slapt-get then parses this file during source downloads.  Typically, third party packages store the dependency information within the package itself for later extraction into the PACKAGES.TXT.  The inclusion of this information within the [[Slackware]] package format does not inhibit the ability for [[Slackware]] pkgtools to install these packages.  This information is silently ignored and discarded after the package is installed.