[gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Jarry]

Hi,

is there any way to find completely all "orphaned" files on my
system (recursivelly from /)? I mean all files (and directories)
which do not belong to any ebuild installed...

I know, there is "qfile" with "-o" option, but its syntax is
not clear to me. I tried "qfile -o *" but that is apparently
not the correct syntax, as all I got were a few top-level
subdirectories and nothing more...

I also found "orphan_finder.py" script in forum but I'm not
sure it works properly. When I tested it on /etc it found
a lot of "orphan" files, directories and links, which actually
are not "orphan"...

Jarry
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Re: [gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:09:27 +0100, Jarry wrote:

> I know, there is "qfile" with "-o" option, but its syntax is
> not clear to me. I tried "qfile -o *" but that is apparently
> not the correct syntax, as all I got were a few top-level
> subdirectories and nothing more...

qfile operates on the files you give it, it doesn't recurse into
directories.

Try find / -xdev -type f -exec qfile -o {} +


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Copper wire was invented by two Scotsmen fighting over a penny!

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Re: [gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Dale]

Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:09:27 +0100, Jarry wrote:
>
>    
>> I know, there is "qfile" with "-o" option, but its syntax is
>> not clear to me. I tried "qfile -o *" but that is apparently
>> not the correct syntax, as all I got were a few top-level
>> subdirectories and nothing more...
>>      
> qfile operates on the files you give it, it doesn't recurse into
> directories.
>
> Try find / -xdev -type f -exec qfile -o {} +
>
>
>    

Naturally this returned a lot so we have to use common sense before 
deleting something.  That said, what about these:

/usr/bin/cc
/usr/bin/c++
/usr/bin/c89
/usr/bin/gcc
/usr/bin/gcov
/usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-c++
/usr/bin/python-config

A whole bunch of files in:

/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.4.5/32/*
/usr/lib64/python2.6/*

Just to name a few.  Naturally there are files in /root and a lot of 
files that I created that also show up.  Some of the files above, they 
just about have to belong to something tho. I used qfile to test and it 
says they don't so your command is working fine.  I'm pretty sure tho 
that python-config and gcc belong to their respective packages.  
Question is, why does qfile think they don't?

This is the ones I tested:

root@fireball / # qfile /usr/bin/c++
root@fireball / # qfile /usr/bin/c89
root@fireball / # qfile /usr/bin/gcc
root@fireball / # qfile /usr/bin/gcov
root@fireball / # qfile /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-c++
root@fireball / # qfile /usr/bin/python-config
root@fireball / # qfile /usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.4.5/32/
root@fireball / # qfile 
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.4.5/32/crtbeginS.o
root@fireball / # qfile /usr/lib64/python2.6/binhex.pyo
root@fireball / #

Is qfile wrong?  The equery command said the same as qfile so this is 
confusing.

Dale

:-)  :-)

P. S.  Nope, I'm not deleting those.  ;-)

Re: [gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:33:38 -0500, Dale wrote:

> Naturally this returned a lot so we have to use common sense before 
> deleting something.  That said, what about these:
> 
> /usr/bin/cc
> /usr/bin/c++
> /usr/bin/c89
> /usr/bin/gcc
> /usr/bin/gcov
> /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-c++

I think these are created by gcc-config, so don't belong to any package.
If you want to do this regularly, I'd suggest creating a list of
exceptions that you can exclude from find. You don't need to search
everywhere, /{,usr}/{,s}bin, /{,usr}/lib and /opt should be sufficient.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

To be intoxicated is to feel sophisticated but not be able to say it.

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Re: [gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Dale]

Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:33:38 -0500, Dale wrote:
>
>    
>> Naturally this returned a lot so we have to use common sense before
>> deleting something.  That said, what about these:
>>
>> /usr/bin/cc
>> /usr/bin/c++
>> /usr/bin/c89
>> /usr/bin/gcc
>> /usr/bin/gcov
>> /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-c++
>>      
> I think these are created by gcc-config, so don't belong to any package.
> If you want to do this regularly, I'd suggest creating a list of
> exceptions that you can exclude from find. You don't need to search
> everywhere, /{,usr}/{,s}bin, /{,usr}/lib and /opt should be sufficient.
>
>    

So if they were deleted things would still work?  Just curious.  This is 
a recent install so I wasn't expecting it to find much, just files I 
created basically.  I just thought it odd that it found so many files 
and that qfile/equery didn't know where they came from either.

That gcc one bugs me tho. It's in /usr/bin but doesn't belong to a 
package.  Just blows my mind, which ain't much right now.  lol   I got 
to get better meds.

Dale

:-)  :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:33:59 -0500, Dale wrote:

> That gcc one bugs me tho. It's in /usr/bin but doesn't belong to a 
> package.  Just blows my mind, which ain't much right now.  lol   I got 
> to get better meds.

Remember that gcc-config sets which version is called when you run gcc,
so it must have it's own gcc, possibly created when you change the
setting.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

"Everything takes longer than expected, even when you take
  into account Hoffstead's Law." - Hoffstead's Law

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Re: [gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Mike Edenfield]

On 3/25/2011 5:33 AM, Dale wrote:
> Neil Bothwick wrote:
>> On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:33:38 -0500, Dale wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> Naturally this returned a lot so we have to use common sense before
>>> deleting something.  That said, what about these:
>>>
>>> /usr/bin/cc
>>> /usr/bin/c++
>>> /usr/bin/c89
>>> /usr/bin/gcc
>>> /usr/bin/gcov
>>> /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-c++
>>>      
>> I think these are created by gcc-config, so don't belong to any package.
>> If you want to do this regularly, I'd suggest creating a list of
>> exceptions that you can exclude from find. You don't need to search
>> everywhere, /{,usr}/{,s}bin, /{,usr}/lib and /opt should be sufficient.
>>
>>    
> 
> So if they were deleted things would still work?  Just curious.  This is
> a recent install so I wasn't expecting it to find much, just files I
> created basically.  I just thought it odd that it found so many files
> and that qfile/equery didn't know where they came from either.
> 
> That gcc one bugs me tho. It's in /usr/bin but doesn't belong to a
> package.  Just blows my mind, which ain't much right now.  lol   I got
> to get better meds.

/usr/bin/gcc doesn't belong to any package. The gcc packages install
versioned files, like:

/usr/bin/gcc-4.5.2 ->
/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.5.2/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-gcc

When you run gcc-config to pick a compiler, it creates and/or updates
/usr/bin/gcc (and the others) to point to whatever version binaries you
selected.

If you deleted /usr/bin/cc, /usr/bin/gcc, etc. things would stop
compiling, but just running gcc-config will make them come back. If
/usr/bin/gcc is missing you will get an error about your GCC_SPECS being
wrong but that's because gcc-config tries to run `/usr/bin/gcc -v` to
check for problems. But the error is harmless -- just re-run gcc-config
again and you will see it finish with no problems.

--Mike

Re: [gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Dale]

Mike Edenfield wrote:
> On 3/25/2011 5:33 AM, Dale wrote:
>    
>> Neil Bothwick wrote:
>>      
>>> On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:33:38 -0500, Dale wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>        
>>>> Naturally this returned a lot so we have to use common sense before
>>>> deleting something.  That said, what about these:
>>>>
>>>> /usr/bin/cc
>>>> /usr/bin/c++
>>>> /usr/bin/c89
>>>> /usr/bin/gcc
>>>> /usr/bin/gcov
>>>> /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-c++
>>>>
>>>>          
>>> I think these are created by gcc-config, so don't belong to any package.
>>> If you want to do this regularly, I'd suggest creating a list of
>>> exceptions that you can exclude from find. You don't need to search
>>> everywhere, /{,usr}/{,s}bin, /{,usr}/lib and /opt should be sufficient.
>>>
>>>
>>>        
>> So if they were deleted things would still work?  Just curious.  This is
>> a recent install so I wasn't expecting it to find much, just files I
>> created basically.  I just thought it odd that it found so many files
>> and that qfile/equery didn't know where they came from either.
>>
>> That gcc one bugs me tho. It's in /usr/bin but doesn't belong to a
>> package.  Just blows my mind, which ain't much right now.  lol   I got
>> to get better meds.
>>      
> /usr/bin/gcc doesn't belong to any package. The gcc packages install
> versioned files, like:
>
> /usr/bin/gcc-4.5.2 ->
> /usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.5.2/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-gcc
>
> When you run gcc-config to pick a compiler, it creates and/or updates
> /usr/bin/gcc (and the others) to point to whatever version binaries you
> selected.
>
> If you deleted /usr/bin/cc, /usr/bin/gcc, etc. things would stop
> compiling, but just running gcc-config will make them come back. If
> /usr/bin/gcc is missing you will get an error about your GCC_SPECS being
> wrong but that's because gcc-config tries to run `/usr/bin/gcc -v` to
> check for problems. But the error is harmless -- just re-run gcc-config
> again and you will see it finish with no problems.
>
> --Mike
>
>    

Ahhhh.  So it just links the gcc command to whatever version of gcc is 
active.  Kewl !!  That makes sense.

I learned something today.  Given my age, I may forget it tomorrow but 
at least I know it today.  lol

I do wish there was some way to find files that are not needed or used 
tho.  I would still go through the files and delete them manually but it 
would be nice, especially on my old rig which has a pretty old install.  
I bet /etc would have quite a few of them.

Thanks to you and Neil too.

Dale

:-)  :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] How can I find all "orphaned" files?

[Mr. Jarry]

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 12:10 AM, Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
>
> qfile operates on the files you give it, it doesn't recurse into
> directories.
>
> Try find / -xdev -type f -exec qfile -o {} +

Oh, thanks, now it is clear. I think man-page is a little confusing:
"qfile -o" does not find orphan files, it only checkes if the given file
is orphan, or not. But first I have to prepare a list of files which
will be used as arguments for "qfile"...

Jarry