[gentoo-user] Re: Removing KDE 3.5? Or reason to keep it around?

[Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de>]

On 02/27/2010 04:15 AM, BRM wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----
>
>> From: Neil Bothwick<neil@digimed.co.uk> To:
>> gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:34:18 -0800
>> (PST), BRM wrote:
>>> Aside from that, I'm not sure I have ever really run "emerge
>>> --depclean", but I also rarely uninstall anything, but don't
>>> install things left or right to try out either, so typically
>>> upgrades are all I need to do.
>> You should still run --depclean as dependencies change and you
>> could still have plenty of no longer needed ones installed.
>
> Okay - so I ran "emerge --depclean -a" and got the below. I tried
> running "emerge world -vuDNa" as specified, but that didn't resolve
> it either.
>
> I tried looking in the world file (/var/lib/portage/world) but didn't
> find any entries that felt safe to remove.

"Safe" as to what?  If something is in the world file that you didn't 
explicitly request, then it doesn't belong there.  For example, if you 
have "x11-libs/qt-gui" in world, you should delete it.  The world file 
should not contain dependencies, it should only contain the stuff you 
emerged directly.

To give an example, if you emerge "media-video/smplayer", then that one 
will end up in the world file.  But smplayer will also pull-in qt and 
mplayer.  Those do not go in the world file.  When you unmerge smplayer 
again, qt and mplayer will not be unmerged unless you run "emerge 
--depclean".  However, if qt and mplayer end up being in the world file 
anyway, it means you made a mistake at some point; like emerging 
something that is a dependency but forgot to specify the "-1" (or 
"--oneshot") option to emerge.

So if you see something in the world file that you know don't need 
directly (and I doubt you need qt directly; KDE for example needs it, 
you, as a person, don't) it's safe to remove.

Of course always make a backup first :P