Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: emerge --depclean question

["Marek Wróbel" <smbmarek@poczta.onet.pl>]

Mark Knecht wrote:
> <SNIP
>   I'm proceeding along getting a number of packages removed which is
> good. However here's an example one I'm not sure how to handle or why
> it's showing up. I've run --depclean -p and see what appears to be an
> unneeded library called libwmf. However when I try tracing my way back
> to find what depending on it I eventually get to xine-ui which I use
> all the time:
> 
> lightning ~ # equery d libwmf
> [ Searching for packages depending on libwmf... ]
> media-gfx/imagemagick-6.3.0.5
> lightning ~ # equery d imagemagick
> [ Searching for packages depending on imagemagick... ]
> gnome-extra/libgsf-1.14.2
> media-libs/xine-lib-1.1.2-r3
> media-video/transcode-1.0.2-r3
> lightning ~ # equery d xine-lib
> [ Searching for packages depending on xine-lib... ]
> media-sound/amarok-1.4.3-r1
> media-video/xine-ui-0.99.5_pre20060716
> media-video/totem-2.16.4
> lightning ~ #

This issue can be related to changes in USE flags. xine-lib depends on
imagemagick only when "imagemagick" USE flag is set. And imagemagck
depends on libwmf only when "wmf" USE flag is set. So these packages
were merged probably when you had these flags set. Later USE flags may
have changed (new portage profile?) and currently they most likely are
not set.

Moreover, I have noticed that equery takes conditional dependencies into
consideration regardless of USE flags state. Thus it shows that
imagemagick is required by xine-lib even when it actually isn't (because
you don't have "imagemagick" flag set).

You have run emerge -uDN, so none of your packages (except those listed
by -p --depclean) should be linked with any of libraries to be removed.
I think that running --depclean will not break your system or when
something is broken, it will be remerged by revdep-rebuild without
pulling in removed packages.

Running revdep-rebuild after removing only some packages pending removal
isn't a good thing, because remaining ones are likely to be broken. I
recommend running revdep-rebuild after depclean is completed.

Of course, you should earlier revise your USE flags to check whether
some features needed by you weren't excluded. I cannot also guarantee
anything, so if it is a critical machine, you should undertake some
safety steps like quickpkg'ing packages before removal.

Hope it helps,
Marek Wróbel
-- 
gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list