Re: [gentoo-dev] [PATCH 0/3] elisp{,-common}.eclass update for emacs-vcs consolidation

[Michael Orlitzky <mjo@gentoo.org>]

On 12/18/19 11:34 AM, Ulrich Mueller wrote:
> 
> Removal of the virtual/emacs ebuilds won't remove the installed package
> from users' systems. It will eventually disappear, when all its reverse
> dependencies have been updated. Why would its continued presence as an
> installed package (for another while) cause any problems?

Unless the VDB is updated, portage will see a dependency on a package
that doesn't exist and could refuse to do a lot of things like a @world
update involving a rebuild of one of those packages, or a --depclean.

This *does* happen if you mask virtual/emacs. It *could* happen if you
delete it.


> Revbumping its more than 400 reverse dependencies really doesn't sound
> so attractive, and would cause rebuilds on users' systems for virtually
> (pun intended :-) no benefit.

If portage bails on an update and I have to troubleshoot the problem for
ten minutes, then that's already wasted more of my time than if it
reinstalled all 400 revdeps. The benefit is that people don't get
cryptic messages from a confused packaged manager that they have to
debug all day.