Information Density: SlackBuilds.org – Signal Evidence & AI Readability

[H1] Welcome to SlackBuilds.org!
#slackbuilds on irc.libera.chat
https://git.slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/
Thanks to all of our contributors
who donated toward our new machine which you are now viewing!
The SlackBuilds.org project is maintained by a small group
of people, but we want the scripts in our repository to be
representative of the entire Slackware user community.
There's no way that the few of us can possibly write scripts
for all of the extra applications that users want to have,
so we depend on YOU to help us out. If there's some application
that you use, and we don't have it in our repository already,
please consider writing a build script for it and submitting
it to us for possible inclusion - see the
Submissions page.
One of the frequent criticisms of Slackware is the lack
of official packages available. While the official package
set provides a good, stable, and flexible operating system
(and is quite adequate for many individuals), the fact remains
that many users want/need quite a few additional applications
in order for it to meet their needs. There are a few well-known
third party package repositories, but many users justifiably
do not want to install untrusted packages on their systems.
For those users, the traditional solution has been to download
the source code for desired applications and compile them
manually. This works, but introduces another set of problems
associated with managing those applications; version updates
and such require more of the admin's time than precompiled
packages, and lack of notes will often mean that the admin
forgot which configure flags were used earlier (as well as
any other special issues encountered).
In our opinion, the best solution to this problem is for
the admin to automate the compile process using a SlackBuild
script. Patrick Volkerding, the maintainer of Slackware, uses
SlackBuild scripts to compile the official packages, so it
makes sense for us to use the same idea for extra applications
we want to add.
Our goal is to have the largest collection of SlackBuild
scripts available while still ensuring that they are of the
highest quality - we test every submission prior to inclusion
in the repository. We do not now nor will we ever provide
precompiled packages for any of the applications for which we
have SlackBuild scripts - instead, we want the system
administrator (that's you) to be responsible for building the
packages.

© 2006-2026 SlackBuilds.org Project. All rights reserved.
Slackware® is a registered trademark of
Patrick Volkerding
Linux® is a registered trademark of
Linus Torvalds

[H1] Submission Guidelines
The SlackBuilds.org project is maintained by a small group of people,
but we want the scripts in our repository to be representative of the
entire Slackware user community. There's no way that the few of us can
possibly write scripts for all of the extra applications that users want
to have, so we depend on YOU to help us out. If there's some application
that you use, and we don't have it in our repository already, please
consider writing a build script for it and submitting it to us for possible
inclusion. See below for our submission requirements.
Submit scripts for possible inclusion using our
SlackBuilds Upload Form, but make sure you follow the guidelines
below. Do not include the source code or your upload will be
rejected.
Before expending time and effort in writing a build script, be sure to
search our repository to make sure one doesn't already exist. Also, you
may wish to have a look at the pending queue to
see if someone else has already submitted what you're planning to do.
It might be a good idea to look at the ready queue
as well to see what updates are going to be part of the next public
update.
You will still need to read the list of requirements, but we have
SlackBuild Script Templates available
if you would like to download them for easy editing.
All submissions should be an archive, compressed or uncompressed -
either one is fine - (tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2, or .tar.xz) of a directory
(named according to the application's name) containing at least the
following files:

$PRGNAM.SlackBuild (for instance, rdesktop.SlackBuild)
slack-desc
README
$PRGNAM.info (for instance, rdesktop.info)

[H3] $PRGNAM.SlackBuild Requirements

Follow our template scripts as much as
possible. Deviations are fine where needed, but don't change things
to be "more clever" or some such - we like consistency
You will need to note the author of the script and add licensing
information. The only requirement we have is this: the
license must be open-source and allow for modification and
redistribution of the modified version.
We strongly suggest you use the BSD/MIT style license
as seen in the templates.
If you do not specify a license then your submission
might be rejected.
If you wish to license your scripts under a GPL or
variant, then be sure to include a copy of the license
with your submission if the license requires it. We
don't encourage these licenses, as the license is often
much longer than the script itself, but that's
your call.
We do not accept "Public Domain" scripts.
Public domain is not valid in some countries, and no license
is worse than a "bad" license in those countries.

[H3] The README file
The README file should contain at least the following information:
A descripton of the application. The most common way
to do this is by including the contents of the slack-desc
file (without the "$PRGNAM:" portion), but you may deviate
from this if needed. Have a look at some of the other
README files to get an idea of what is expected.
Any optional application and/or library dependencies that are
not included in the official Slackware package set and not listed
as part of REQUIRES in the .info file; you
should also note the home page of the dependencies.
Any other relevant information that might be useful
to someone using the script:
Is special configuration needed before
building the package?
Is special configuration needed after
installing the package?
Is this application incompatible with
some other application?

[H3] The $PRGNAM.info file
The info file should contain the following information in
the exact format given below:
PRGNAM="(name of application)"
VERSION="(version of application)"
HOMEPAGE="(homepage of application)"
DOWNLOAD="(direct download link(s) of application source tarball(s), arch-independent or x86)"
MD5SUM="(md5sum(s) of the source tarball(s) defined in DOWNLOAD)"
DOWNLOAD_x86_64="(direct download link(s) of application source tarball(s), x86_64 only)"
MD5SUM_x86_64="(md5sum(s) of the source tarball(s) defined in DOWNLOAD_x86_64)"
REQUIRES="(required build-time and run-time dependencies; optional dependencies at maintainer discretion)"
MAINTAINER="(name of SlackBuild script maintainer)"
EMAIL="(email address of maintainer)"
For example, see the following rdesktop.info file:

PRGNAM="rdesktop"
VERSION="1.4.1"
HOMEPAGE="http://rdesktop.org"
DOWNLOAD="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/rdesktop/rdesktop-1.4.1.tar.gz"
MD5SUM="78dd2bae04edf1cb9f65c29930dcc993"
DOWNLOAD_x86_64=""
MD5SUM_x86_64=""
REQUIRES=""
MAINTAINER="Robby Workman"
EMAIL="rworkman@slackbuilds.org"

Pay attention to the fact that all values are enclosed in double
quotes; this is a requirement. Other double quotes embedded
in the string are not allowed.
REQUIRES contains a space-separated list of all required
build-time and run-time dependencies, each named exactly as listed
on the SlackBuilds.org site. It should not contain anything that
is part of Slackware itself. The content of REQUIRES should only be first
level dependencies (i.e. no deps of deps).
Optional dependences should not be listed in REQUIRES - they should still
be listed in the README (and preferably will list what feature the optional
dependency provides). If the maintainer feels that a dependency is,
while technically optional, strongly recommended enough to require it,
that is generally acceptable - we'll retain veto power on that but
we expect that it won't be an issue.
Listing %README% as part of REQUIRES indicates that important information
about dependencies is available in the README and that the script may
not function correctly, or may produce undesired results, without user
intervention. This is entirely for the aid of automated tools, since users
should be reading the README in the first place.
Note that the MD5SUM entry contains only the actual
checksum rather than the full output of the md5sum
command.
Note that the MAINTAINER entry is subject to change; the author
of the script should be noted in the actual script itself, and
while it will often (usually) be the same as the MAINTAINER,
this allows a script author to turn over maintenance of the
script to another individual.
If the source tarball is the same for all archs, leave DOWNLOAD_x86_64 and MD5SUM_x86_64 empty.
If the application does not build on one of the supported architectures, mark it as UNSUPPORTED like this:

DOWNLOAD="UNSUPPORTED"
or
DOWNLOAD_x86_64="UNSUPPORTED"

In this case you can leave the respective MD5SUM entry empty.
If the application does not build on a clean Slackware64 system, but would if there were 32bit compatibility libraries present
at build time, you can mark it as UNTESTED:

DOWNLOAD_x86_64="UNTESTED"

If an application requires multiple source downloads, you can define it like this:

DOWNLOAD="dl1 dl2 dl3"
MD5SUM="md5_of_dl1 md5_of_dl2 md5_of_dl3"

[H3] Other concerns

No custom patches unless absolutely necessary; if at all
possible, we want to maintain the Slackware philosophy of
distributing "clean" stuff - if it's not in the upstream
sources, then it probably doesn't need to be in our scripts.
However, we are a bit more liberal about this than Pat is -
if a patch (or set of patches) makes the packaging process
easier or more efficient, we'll often include the patches.
As a general rule, we do not accept SlackBuild scripts
of software that is included as part of Slackware; however,
exceptions may be made by the admin staff on a case-by-case
basis.
It's recommended to use plain ASCII for all files that
are being submitted to SBo.
We now have linting tools to test SlackBuilds and
finished packages before using the submission form.
Sbolint and sbopkglint can be found in the
sbo-maintainer-tools SlackBuild available in the repo:
sbo-maintainer-tools
Development of these is ongoing, so it is recommended to
still inspect package contents and scripts manually
too, but, at the end of the day, they will save time and
the frustration of rejection/resubmission.

Once you're certain that your script meets our guidelines,
submit it using the SlackBuilds Upload Form.

© 2006-2026 SlackBuilds.org Project. All rights reserved.
Slackware® is a registered trademark of
Patrick Volkerding
Linux® is a registered trademark of
Linus Torvalds

[H1] Contributors
Hosting and Hardware
OnyxLight Communications
Contributions toward new hardware and general donations
Unsigned Integer Limited (Distrowatch),
Barry Grundy,
Arthur Green,
Benjamin Trigona Harany,
Александр Вербовецкий,
Jason Graham,
Audrius Kazukauskas,
Jan Hovland,
John Yost,
Charles Coffee,
Erik Falor,
Eric Pratt,
Steve-David Marguet,
Patrick Mompach,
Serban Udrea,
Christophe Nguyen Minh Tan,
Petar Petrov,
Christoph Willing,
Roger McCraven,
Brian Lawrence,
Alan Ianson,
Alan Dingeldein,
Olivier Colin,
Geoff Lewis,
Gael Le Hec H,
Ştefan Suciu,
Joseph Ferrare,
Christoph Kühne,
David Allen,
Nishant Limbachia,
Steven Saner,
Xavier Belanger,
Phillip Bevan,
Laurent Chamontin,
Thomas Luquet,
Marie Collilieux,
Jerry Barker,
Jeffrey Schonbrun,
Edward Koenig (King Beowulf),
Frédéric Falsetti,
Peter Jackson,
Diego Borghetti,
Ferenc Kurucz,
Sébastien Neuvill,
David O'Shaughnessy,
26dimensions,
Michelino Chionchio,
Thomas Morper,
Wilson Rodrigues,
Johannes Schöpfer,
Kevin Bryant,
Arun Mascarenhas,
Gerold Bruns,
Brian Barcus,
Michael Elstad,
Ryan McQuen,
Ruben Schuller,
Ozan Turkyilmaz,
Fellype Nascimento,
Jeulin Erik,
Matthew Dinslage,
8SISTEMAS,
Andreas Vögele,
Andre Pietri,
Olesinski Robert,
Nanhou Alain,
Nathan Bargmann,
Renato Gomes,
TTK Ciar,
Radson Antonio Santos,
Clifford Meilleur,
Todor Takov,
Doru Mihalachi,
Joakim Vinteräng,
Aleksander Popiuk,
Lawrence Belan II,
Harald Achitz,
Francesco Baldassarri,
Mariyan Marinov,
Carlos Prat Guasch,
Gleyson Luiz Silva da Cruz,
Andrew MacKs,
Maurice BASQUIN,
Anthony McKenzie,
Daryll Pierre x2,
Dolcera Corporation,
Donato SAELI,
Mark Supper,
Marco MacCario,
Marcin Jabłoński,
Ryan Goodner,
Wayne Cuddy,
Andrew Alt,
Theodoor Buurmeijer
We'd also like to (again) thank
everyone who contributed
to purchasing harrier.slackbuilds.org,
the machine handling our DNS, MX, and mail lists.
Donations

If you would like to donate to the project, please instead donate to Patrick Volkerding directly
via his Patreon account. This will
help cover the costs of Slackware development and hosting for both Slackware and SlackBuilds.org.

© 2006-2026 SlackBuilds.org Project. All rights reserved.
Slackware® is a registered trademark of
Patrick Volkerding
Linux® is a registered trademark of
Linus Torvalds

[H1] SlackBuilds Repository

Academic

Accessibility

Audio

Business

Desktop

Development

Games

Gis

Graphics

Ham

Haskell

Libraries

Misc

Multimedia

Network

Office

Perl

Python

Ruby

System

[H3] Validated for Slackware 15.0

See our HOWTO for instructions on how to use the contents of this repository.
Access to the repository is available via:
ftp
git
cgit
http
rsync

© 2006-2026 SlackBuilds.org Project. All rights reserved.
Slackware® is a registered trademark of
Patrick Volkerding
Linux® is a registered trademark of
Linus Torvalds