slackware:current - SlackDocs (original) (raw)

[2025-jun-08] The SlackDocs mailing lists at https://lists.alienbase.nl/mailman/listinfo will be retired before the end of 2025. No one has been using these lists for years and it's time to say goodbye.

[2025-jun-05] We are planning to move the SlackDocs Wiki to a new server in June '25, in order to make it more performant and better able to deal with the continuous DDoS on the host.

Table of Contents

Overview

Slackware -Current is the development branch of Slackware that eventually gets released as a stable version when considered ready (and then split again, as the development branch for the next version). It is similar in function to the testing branch of other distributions and the same caveats apply to -Current.

Tracking the Current Branch

To track the Current branch, it is recommended that you

1. cleanly install or upgrade your installation to the latest stable version first, following the instructions and information in the appropriate UPGRADE.TXT and CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT files found on the CD/DVD or the Slackware Linux online mirror.
2. edit the /etc/slackpkg/mirrors file and comment out the mirror pointing to your stable version and uncomment one of the mirrors pointing to the current branch. For example, if you're using the Switzerland mirror and currently on the 13.37 stable release for Slackware 64-bit, then comment out the line

http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/slackware/slackware64-13.37/

and uncomment the line
http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/pool/3/mirror/slackware/slackware64-current/
or any other mirror point to the -current branch. 3. run the command (as root)
slackpkg update 4. read the ChangeLog file present in /var/lib/slackpkg/ChangeLog.txt for what applications and libraries are upgraded and which new packages are included. 5. upgrade to the current branch in the normal fashion. See full system upgrade for more information. 6. keep the current branch up-to-date by following steps 3 to 5 above (you could also automate the update-checking with a cron job.)

Do not track the Current branch on production systems as it is a test-bed for upcoming releases. It is recommended that you use the latest stable release with the security updates instead.

Sources

* Originally written by Harishankar for the SlackDocs Wiki Project.