Re: [gentoo-user] --depclean wants to remove openrc. Yikes!

[Neil Bothwick]

On Sat, 24 Jul 2021 21:01:34 +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:

> > > It seems it's insisting on removing all packages but one which
> > > satisfy a virtual.  Maybe that is unwise, and it should keep _all_
> > > such packages which are currently installed.
>
> > Well, the whole point of an any-of dependency is to only require one
> > of them.  Why force packages to stick around if they aren't needed?
>
> I would say all packages in @system _are_ needed, unless the user
> explicitly says otherwise.

They are, @system is a set of packages and nothing it it will be
depcleaned. However, openrc is not part of @system, the virtual is.

> > Now, whether daemontools actually should satisfy the dependency I
> > don't want to comment on without doing more research.  Surely though
> > there is little point in having openrc and systemd and runit on the
> > same system unless the user explicitly wants this (and if they do they
> > can just stick them in @world).
>
> The user might be switching between them, doing comparisons.  (No, I
> don't know if this is practical.)  I don't know either whether it's
> practical to boot Gentoo with just daemontools.  But there are use cases
> which require both openrc and daemontools on the same system, so there's
> something not quite right about the service-manager ebuild, or emerge.

That is possible, but it is also possible that this is entirely down to
you installing things outside of portage and handling their dependencies
manually, creating unwanted side-effects like this.

> I think that would be solving the wrong problem.  The fact is, it is
> easy, far too easy, to shoot yourself in the foot here.  As well as
> openrc, --depclean also wanted to remove nano (the editor) for the same
> reason.  That might be serious for some people.

It did that because you have another suitable editor installed. I don't
like nano so I'm happy to install something else that satisfies
virtual/editor and let depclean get rid of nano, knowing that it won't do
it unless I already have a suitable alternative installed.

> Maybe the answer is to regard --depclean as a tool for experts only,
> since it is capable in ordinary innocent use of rendering a system
> unusable.

I feel it's more a case of Gentoo being a system for those that
understand what they are doing with the system - with great power comes
great responsibility and all that.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Caution, an incorrigible punster - don't incorrige.