Re: [gentoo-user] emerge depclean gcc

[daid kahl]

2010/10/21 Michael Hampicke <gentoo-user@××××.biz>:
>
>> May I just unmerge my old gcc ?
>> Is it save ?
>
> Yes it's save to unmerge your old gcc.
> You could also - using quickpkg - create a binary package of your old
> gcc before unmerging (for backup puropses).
>

From the strictly Gentoo side of things, it's safe (following
instructions already posted).

However, for myself, I use tons of third party physics software, among
other things.  A lot of it is not very recent, and sometimes they are
picky about which gcc compiles is (and sometimes I need a shell script
to switch the gcc for execution of those programs and switch back
afterward...joy!)

So if you do a lot of compiling of external programs that are not as
well maintained and updated, there's not a lot of reason to *unmerge*
an old gcc.  There are two reasons to actually remove gcc's in my
opinion: revdep-rebuild wants to reinstall all of them, you need the
disk space.

I have 10 options under gcc-config.  I'm not at all recommending this
to everyone, but just making the point that, depending on what other
things you have going on, it's a good idea to check any third party
stuff, at the very least, before just removing it, since there's not
much harm in keeping a few extra gccs around for rainy days.

~daid