danix-nvchecker

A unified nvchecker configuration plus nvtable, a small Bash tool that answers the question nvchecker alone cannot:

upstream released a new version, but do I have it installed, and does the SlackBuild in my repo still ship the old one?

nvcmp compares upstream against its own last-seen state. nvtable adds the two columns that matter in practice, the version installed on this machine and the version shipped by the SlackBuild repo that packages it.

     package                 upstream       installed      repo
  🔴   discord                 1.0.152        1.0.151        my 1.0.152
  🔴🟡 nuclei                  3.11.1         3.11.0         sbo 3.11.0
  🔴   signal-desktop          8.22.0         8.20.0         --
  🟢   qarma                   1.1.1          1.1.1          my 1.1.1

  26 to upgrade · 2 repos to bump · 32 current · 13 not installed

marker	meaning
🔴	installed version is behind upstream
🟡	the repo `.info` still ships an older version, so it needs a bump
🟢	installed and packaged versions both match upstream
⚪	not installed on this host (tracked only)

A row can carry two markers: 🔴🟡 means upstream moved and neither the system nor the SlackBuild has caught up.

nvchecker.toml - one config covering everything tracked: software installed on this machine, packages maintained in three SlackBuild repos, and services running elsewhere.
nvtable - the comparison tool.

nvchecker.toml

Merged from a personal config and the .extras/nvchecker.toml of three SlackBuild repositories, deduplicated. The per-repo configs are kept in their repos for standalone sweeps; this one is the superset used day to day.

Two conventions make the joins work without a lookup table:

The stanza name is the Slackware package name wherever a package exists, so results join directly against /var/log/packages and against <pkg>/<pkg>.info. Where they genuinely differ (kvantum builds both kvantum-qt5 and kvantum-qt6) nvtable carries a small alias map.
A # repo= comment marks which repository ships the package: sbo, my, sps, or nothing for tracked-only entries.

Watch for two nvchecker details that cause silent wrong answers:

A stanza name containing a dot must be quoted. [llama.cpp-vulkan] parses as a nested llama table and fails with no source specified; write ["llama.cpp-vulkan"].
Omitting prefix = "v" on a use_latest_release GitHub source yields v8.30.1 rather than 8.30.1, which then never matches a .info VERSION.

nvtable

Requirements

bash, jq, and nvchecker's nvcmp/nvtake. flatpak is optional and used only if present.

Usage

nvtable [-a] [-n] [-C] [-E]

  -a, --all       show every tracked package, not just those needing action
  -n, --no-take   do not run nvtake on caught-up packages
  -C, --no-color  plain output
  -E, --no-emoji  ASCII status markers instead of emoji

By default only actionable rows print. Packages that are current, and packages not installed on this host, are folded into the summary line. Color is disabled automatically when output is not a terminal.

Where the three versions come from

upstream is read from nvchecker's new_ver.json. nvtable never fetches anything itself, so it is fast enough to run on every login; refreshing that file is nvchecker's job.

installed is resolved from four sources, in order:

the OPT_JSON map, for apps unpacked under /opt that are none of the below and carry their version in a JSON file (Electron apps such as Typora). Each entry is a stanza name mapped to <path>:<jq filter>.
/var/log/packages for Slackware packages
~/.local/state/appimage-updater/installed.json for AppImages managed by appimage-updater
flatpak list for flatpak apps

repo is the VERSION= line of <repo>/<category>/<pkg>/<pkg>.info across the configured SlackBuild repositories.

Version comparison

Versions arrive from unrelated sources and rarely agree on formatting, so they are normalised before comparison: a leading v is stripped, - and _ fold to ., and case is ignored.

Installed versions also carry build metadata that upstream never has, for instance r8125 installs as 9.018.00_6.18.41 (version plus kernel) against an upstream 9.018.00. An installed version that merely extends upstream at a component boundary counts as equal, otherwise every such package would report as permanently behind.

One related trap: a Slackware package filename is PRGNAM-VERSION-ARCH-BUILD, but VERSION may itself contain a dash (solvespace-3.1-659215d), so the PRGNAM/VERSION boundary cannot be found by counting dashes. Lookups anchor on the package name being searched for instead.

nvtake

When a package's installed version matches upstream, nvtable runs nvtake for it, so nvchecker's old_ver.json tracks the state of this system rather than only what upstream last did. Pass -n to disable.

Because a login shell can start while another is still running, the take is serialised with flock; nvtake rewrites old_ver.json without locking of its own. If the lock is held the take is skipped, and the next run picks it up.

Installation

ln -s "$PWD/nvtable" ~/bin/nvtable
cp nvchecker.toml ~/.config/nvchecker/nvchecker.toml

The config expects a GitHub token in ~/.config/nvchecker/keys.toml, without which the many GitHub sources exhaust the anonymous rate limit:

[keys]
github = "ghp_..."

To show the table at login, call nvtable where nvcmp would have gone. The repository paths nvtable scans are the REPOS array at the top of the script.

Notes

nvtable reads new_ver.json and does not refresh it. If that file is stale, for example right after renaming stanzas, the table reports the old names as untracked until nvchecker runs again.

License

GPLv2 (v2 only). See LICENSE.

Development Approach

This project is developed using AI-assisted tools. Code is generated with the help of AI based on human-provided specifications, design decisions, and iterative feedback.

All contributions are reviewed, tested, and curated by the maintainer before being included in the codebase. AI is used as a productivity and exploration tool, while human oversight remains central to all decisions.

The goal is to combine the flexibility of AI-assisted development with standard open-source practices such as transparency, review, and accountability.