Editing Slackware (section)

=== Dependency resolution ===
The package management system does not track or manage ''dependencies''; however, when performing the recommended full install, all dependencies of the stock packages are met. For custom installations or 3rd-party packages, Slackware relies on the user to ensure that the system has all the supporting system libraries and programs required by the program. Since no official lists of dependencies for stock packages are provided, if users decide to install a custom installation or install 3rd-party software, they will need to work through any possible missing dependencies themselves. Since the package manager doesn't manage dependencies, it will install any and all packages, whether or not dependencies are met. A user may find out that dependencies are missing only when attempting to use the software.

While Slackware itself does not incorporate official tools to resolve dependencies, some unofficial, community-supported software tools do provide this function, similar to the way [[Advanced Packaging Tool|APT]] does for [[Debian]]-based distributions and [[Yellowdog Updater, Modified|yum]] does for [[Red Hat Enterprise Linux|Red Hat]]-based distributions. They include
* [[slapt-get]] is a command line utility that functions in a similar way to APT. While slapt-get does provide a framework for dependency resolution, it does not provide dependency resolution for packages included within the Slackware distribution. However, several community package sources and Slackware based distributions take advantage of this functionality. [[Gslapt]] is a graphical interface to slapt-get.
* Swaret is a package management tool featuring dependency resolution. It was originally included in Slackware version 9.1 as an optional package, but did not contain dependency resolution at that time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://slackware.com/announce/9.1.php|title=The Slackware Linux Project: Slackware Release Announcement|website=Slackware.com|access-date=May 26, 2015|archive-date=June 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611153749/http://www.slackware.com/announce/9.1.php|url-status=live}}</ref> It was removed from the distribution with Slackware 10.0 and turned over to the community. It eventually added dependency resolution and roll-back functionality; however, as of May 2014, there are no active developers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/p/swaret/discussion/303953/thread/a4627fcd/?limit=25#22c3|title=SWareT / Discussion / Open Discussion:Is swaret dead?|website=Sourceforge.net|access-date=March 29, 2016|archive-date=May 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527162220/https://sourceforge.net/p/swaret/discussion/303953/thread/a4627fcd/?limit=25#22c3|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[NetBSD]]'s [[pkgsrc]] provides support for Slackware, among other Unix-like operating systems. pkgsrc provides dependency resolution for both binary and source packages.{{citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source; official website of pkgsrc says it only supports Enterprise Linux, no mention of Slackware, Link=https://pkgsrc.joyent.com/install-on-linux/|date=June 2020}}