slapt-get¶

ID: slapt-get
Home page: https://software.jaos.org/
Platforms: 🐧 Linux (Slackware only)
Operations: installed · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove · sync · cleanup
purl types: pkg:slapt-get
CLI name: slapt-get
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: slapt-get
Source: meta_package_manager/managers/slapt_get.toml

slapt-get is an apt-get-style front-end to Slackware’s pkgtools.

Parsing notes, verified against the slapt-get 0.11.12 C source (src/main.c, src/transaction.c) and its man page:

Listing lines print a fused “name-version-arch-build [inst=yes|no]: description” record, where slapt-get’s own log pattern treats the three trailing dash-fields as version-arch-build. The regexes capture the bare upstream version and drop the arch and build tags.
--search is a POSIX regex over names, matching available then installed-only packages.
No outdated: --upgrade --simulate prints a wrapped, names-only paragraph with no versions, which cannot satisfy the per-line parser.
--no-prompt answers the “Do you want to continue? [y/N]” prompt; mutations (including --update, which writes the package cache) need root, and Slackware ships no sudo by default, so mpm’s own escalation does the work.

What `mpm` adds to `slapt-get`¶

Through mpm, slapt-get gains --exact and --extended search, to narrow to exact names or match descriptions.

Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover slapt-get alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `slapt-get` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know slapt-get: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `slapt-get`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`slapt-get --installed`	`mpm --slapt-get installed`
Search for a package	`slapt-get --search <query>`	`mpm --slapt-get search <query>`
Install a package	`slapt-get --install --no-prompt <package_id>`	`mpm install pkg:slapt-get/<package_id>`
Upgrade one package	`slapt-get --install --no-prompt <package_id>`	`mpm --slapt-get upgrade <package_id>`
Upgrade everything	`slapt-get --upgrade --no-prompt`	`mpm --slapt-get upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`slapt-get --remove --no-prompt <package_id>`	`mpm remove pkg:slapt-get/<package_id>`
Clear caches	`slapt-get --clean`	`mpm --slapt-get cleanup --cache`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	✓
`outdated`
`orphans`
`search`	✓	exact and extended search backfilled by `mpm`
`install`	✓
`upgrade`	✓
`upgrade_all`	✓
`remove`	✓
`sync`	✓
`cleanup`	✓
`doctor`

Selecting and configuring `slapt-get`¶

Deselect slapt-get for a single run with --no-slapt-get, or persist the choice in your configuration:

[mpm]
slapt-get = false

Keep it enabled but tune how mpm drives it with a per-manager override:

[mpm.managers.slapt-get]
timeout = 900

mpm config-template slapt-get prints every overridable attribute as a ready-to-paste block.

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around slapt-get, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --slapt-get dump slapt-get.toml, then mpm restore slapt-get.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --slapt-get sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation¶

System-wide manager: mpm wraps its privileged operations in sudo out of the box. Instead of letting the tool prompt mid-run, mpm primes the credential cache up-front, with a single branded password prompt at most. Turn escalation off for rootless setups with --no-sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

Root is required for its cleanup_cache, install, remove, sync, upgrade, upgrade_all operations.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown¶

State of slapt-get’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None (Slackware)

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: Distro binary archives (pkg:deb, pkg:rpm, pkg:alpm, pkg:apk)
Retraction: Index revert: removal is an archive operation and the mirror is rebuilt without the package. Debian, for one, requires filing an RM: bug against ftp.debian.org (developers-reference)
Publish date: ❌ the version string is the distro maintainer’s build, carrying no upstream publication date

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --allow-unsupported-managers opts back in.

Version probe¶

The version is probed by running:

$ slapt-get --version
slapt-get version 0.11.12

and extracted with:

r"slapt-get version (?P<version>\S+)"

Reference traces¶

Raw native outputs captured in the bundled definition: the reference mpm’s parsers were written against. If you know slapt-get well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ slapt-get --installed
tree-2.3.2-x86_64-1 [inst=yes]: display directory tree
util-linux-2.39-x86_64-1 [inst=yes]: collection of utilities

$ slapt-get --search {query}
tree-2.3.2-x86_64-1 [inst=no]: display directory tree

Feed any of these through mpm and the raw output becomes one uniform table, the same shape for every manager: filter it, project columns, or export it (mpm --slapt-get installed --output json, or csv, toml, yaml), each package carrying a purl and a version comparable across managers.

Changelog¶

7.2.0 (2026-07-09)
- Add slapt-get (Slackware) package manager with installed, search, install, upgrade, remove, sync and cleanup support; a bundled configuration-defined manager.