cleaning the world file (wiki) - check the script

[Mr. T.]

The script checkworldfile seems weird. Normally, the first test mentions if the package is a dependency for other packages so the second test is useless.

[Frautoincnam]

[charles17]

helecho,
Please post here your modified complete proposal. So we can cross check.

[Mr. T.]

The script seems odd.

[charles17]

[khayyam]

[Naib]

It reads every line of the world file and checks if anything depends on it.
Ideally only user requested packaged reside in the world file
_________________

[Mr. T.]

The script does not work.

[Mr. T.]

A package installed by a user may become a dependency after installing another package.

charles17, qdepends -Q only displays build time dependencies. qdepends -aQ displays build, runtime and "post" dependencies.

I think I do not misunderstand the function of the script by reading Naib's post and khayyam's post.

[krinn]

You misunderstood it

[Mr. T.]

krinn, the goal is rather to remove some dependencies placed in the world file. Thus, potential blockages are reduced.

[charles17]

[Mr. T.]

charles17, emerge --depclean will remove it because it is an unneeded "dependency".

app-eselect/eselect-mpg-123 is a dependency of media-sound/mpg123.

[Mr. T.]

In fact, qdepends sometimes displays wrong dependencies (e.g. soft blockers, choice between various packages, etc.).

Anyway, these limitations must be circumvented.

If I remember correctly: qdepends -aQ tells that dev-lang/vala is a dependency of dev-libs/gobject-introspection although dev-lang/vala is not installed.

[Jaglover]

I personally do not believe some script can decide for me what I want, thus my method is to look at world file and remove everything I haven't explicitly installed by hand. Over years I've learned to use always emerge -1 when troubleshooting, thanks to this my world files stay clean and do not require maintenance.
_________________
My Gentoo installation notes.
Please learn how to denote units correctly!

[Mr. T.]

charles17, you do not want to keep the package (media-sound/mpg123) because it does not depend on another one. In fact, qdepends displays wrong information.

media-sound/mpg123 is a soft blocker and so appears in the RDEPEND variable (look at the app-eselect/eselect-mpg123 ebuild).

[charles17]

[Mr. T.]

charles17, the script displays information about what package(s) may be "safely" removed.

[krinn]

It's not a false dependency, first because it's a reverse dependency and second because that reverse dep exists, even if its existence is conditional.

pckA need pckB if use="this"
checking -Q pckA you will get
pckB (with may be true or not depending on "this"/"-this")

because even pckA is not install, pckB will be its reverse dependency if you install it.
but this may not be true once it is install, only if user has set USE="this" with pckB.
and the idea is just a quick lookup, if qdepends tells a reverse deps is on pckA, it might not be "real" if the conditional is not met, and depclean test will answer this.
but if qdepends tells "nobody need it", then you take the shortcut with "none use it, i must keep it safe in world", because you are certain depclean will remove it.

I think you've put too much hope on this script: the script have no idea if vlc is a package you have add in world to use vlc ; but it check if vlc is use by someone else, and if it is, it will suggest : "bah, no need for vlc in world, someone protect it from depclean".
I'm taking vlc, because the script suggest i could remove vlc from world, because it have reverse dep to media-plugins/npapi-vlc-2.0.0, when for me, i care about vlc, and don't care about npapi, i use vlc, so i use npapi because i have vlc, but in real, npapi is just there because i could, while i have no real need of that.
but it's true that if i remove vlc from world, it will remains protect from depclean (lol for me, rock solid protect as i don't use depclean that much) ; but this only as long as that npapi is set (something i could removed anytime because i don't care about it).
and if you forget that: you'll end with npapi remove because you don't care about it, and vlc is now candidate for depclean (which is sole protection that it was in world has been removed if you have follow the script advise).

[John R. Graham]

[charles17]

[Mr. T.]

krinn, the script should display information. qdepends only displays information about installed packages, otherwise, the software would fail.

[Mr. T.]

The script does not know if a package is a dependency or if a package is required by a user. Anyway, it displays packages that may be "safely" removed.

Thus, it is easy (using the script) to know if a package can be removed.

[charles17]

helecho,

If it makes you happy, go and remove the Keep it clean section from the https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/World_set_%28Portage%29 article.
For me it does what I want and I'll keep that script.

ok?

[Mr. T.]

Your script does not seem correct.