[gentoo-user] Re: What causes a package to be brought in during a big emerge?

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 09/26/2009 04:05 AM, Andrew Lowe wrote:
> Hi all,
> I've done an:
>
> "emerge --pretend -NuD world"
>
> and whilst reviewing the output, it lists an old package that I played
> around with in the past but now no longer need. In turn I do:
>
> "emerge -C oldPackageNoLongerNeeded"
>
> the package is removed and I in turn do another
>
> "emerge --pretend -NuD world"
>
> but "oldPackageNoLongerNeeded" is still there, although emerge tells me
> its now gone from "U" to "N" ie Update to New. I've fired up "ufed" and
> removed what I thought would be the appropriate USE tag, run the emerge
> again and it's still there. I've tried:
>
> "equery depends oldPackageNoLongerNeeded"
>
> and it lists nothing as needing "oldPackageNoLongerNeeded"

"equery depends" won't list anything unless the package is question is 
installed.


> I've looked through the emerge help and nothing springs to mind as
> telling me why "oldPackageNoLongerNeeded" is being brought in.
>
> So after that rambling intro, is there a package/utility that will tell
> me, when in this situation, what package needs
> "oldPackageNoLongerNeeded" and why it is being brought into my emerge.

Yes, the package that will tell you is "emerge" itself.  Use its "-t" 
option to get a dep-graph of why something is getting emerged.  Also, 
you can use its "-v" option if you want to see if the package comes from 
some overlay.

Furthermore, *after* "emerge -C oldPackageNoLongerNeeded", do:

   grep oldPackageNoLongerNeeded /var/lib/portage/world

to see if it's still listed in the world file.  If yes, remove all 
traces of it (you can simply edit this world file with a text editor, 
it's safe, but of course you might still want to make a backup of it.)