Re: [gentoo-user] Re: smoothest way to jump from 2006 to 2008

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 3:31 PM,  <reader@×××××××.com> wrote:
> Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> writes:
>
>
> > [2] vi /var/lib/portage/world
>
>  What if I emerge -vC all I know I don't want.
>
>  All kde all gnome all xorg for example, before update world.
>
>  I was hoping to accomplish much the same thing by editing world.  But
>  strangely I see only  a few candidates to delete (marked with
>  asterisks):
>
>  /var/lib/portage/world:
>  app-admin/eselect
>  app-admin/sysklogd
>  app-editors/emacs
>  app-editors/vim
>  app-misc/screen
>  ** app-office/openoffice-bin
>  app-portage/eix
>  app-portage/gentoolkit
>  ** kde-base/kde
>  net-misc/dhcpcd
>  sys-apps/slocate
>  sys-boot/grub
>  sys-devel/gdb
>  sys-kernel/gentoo-sources
>  ** www-client/seamonkey
>  ** x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard
>  ** x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse
>  ** x11-drivers/xf86-video-fbdev
>  ** x11-drivers/xf86-video-vesa
>  ** x11-drivers/xf86-video-vga
>  ** x11-drivers/xf86-video-vmware
>
>  However eix -I shows a whole bunch of kde packages.  Not to mention
>  piles of other stuff not mentioned in `world'.
>

My rule, for the most part, is that nothing is in
/var/lib/portage/world that I don't know I need and that I run by
hand. for instance here is a MythTV backend server I brought up 3
weeks ago:

Sector9 ~ # cat /var/lib/portage/world
app-admin/sudo
app-admin/syslog-ng
app-editors/vim
app-misc/screen
app-portage/eix
app-portage/gentoolkit
app-portage/layman
dev-db/mysql
media-libs/alsa-oss
media-sound/alsa-tools
media-sound/alsa-utils
media-tv/ivtv
media-tv/mythtv
media-video/nvidia-settings
net-misc/ntp
net-print/cups
net-print/foomatic
net-print/gutenprint
sys-apps/baselayout
sys-apps/hotplug
sys-apps/slocate
sys-apps/usbutils
sys-boot/grub
sys-devel/gcc:3.4
sys-devel/gcc:4.1
sys-kernel/gentoo-sources
sys-process/vixie-cron
x11-base/xorg-x11
x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers
Sector9 ~ #

It's pretty clean. The nvidia drivers can probably go as it will
mainly be headless. The cups/gutenprint are planning for making it a
print server pretty soon. I franlky don't remember much about hotplug
anymore. Maybe it can go.

>>> No packages selected for removal by depclean
>>> To see reverse dependencies, use --verbose
Packages installed:   334
Packages in world:    29
Packages in system:   52
Unique package names: 334
Required packages:    334
Number to remove:     0
Sector9 ~ #

Anyway, if I have the time I reduce the contents of this file and let
emerge --depclean tell me what to clean out. If it's a big list then
often I'll do a few by hand, in groups of 5 or so, as copy/paste
options. Look at the list, choose 5, emerge -C them, and then do it
again. This gives me a little more confidence that I won't emerge -C
some system file and cause big problems.

One last thing that I've done once or twice when the whole process is
complete - I don't think it's mentioned here so far and I don't always
do it - but for complete consistency I've gone so far as:

emerge -e system
emerge -e world

and let everything rebuild thus guaranteeing that nothing is left to
chance. I usually do that over a weekend or sometime where usage is
going to be lower, but as I say I'd only go that far after really big
changes or if I was seeing flakey log messages somewhere. Probably a
waste of time but it's just a computer and once the list is smaller
it's not as slow as you think, especially on a server.

Cheers,
Mark
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