[gentoo-user] --depclean wants to remove much of java. Is this safe?

[Allan Gottlieb]

I converted two machines from icedtea (java6) to oracle-jdk-bin
(java7).

I did in effect

 emerge --depclean icedtea icedtea-web =virtual/jdk-1.6.0 =virtual/jdk-1.6.0

On one machine portage now claims that I basically don't need java (see
the output of --depclean below).  Can this be right?  More importantly,
I believe it is safe to do the suggested unmerges (i.e. I could always
remerge them) since

1.  None of these are in system
2.  Portage itself doesn't use java

Am I correct that letting the unmerge happen is reversible.

thanks,
allan

================================================================

oldlap ~ # emerge --ignore-default-opts --pretend --depclean

 * Depclean may break link level dependencies. Thus, it is
 * recommended to use a tool such as `revdep-rebuild` (from
 * app-portage/gentoolkit) in order to detect such breakage.
 * 
 * Always study the list of packages to be cleaned for any obvious
 * mistakes. Packages that are part of the world set will always
 * be kept.  They can be manually added to this set with
 * `emerge --noreplace <atom>`.  Packages that are listed in
 * package.provided (see portage(5)) will be removed by
 * depclean, even if they are part of the world set.
 * 
 * As a safety measure, depclean will not remove any packages
 * unless *all* required dependencies have been resolved.  As a
 * consequence, it is often necessary to run `emerge --update
 * --newuse --deep @world` prior to depclean.

Calculating dependencies... done!
>>> Calculating removal order...

>>> These are the packages that would be unmerged:

 dev-java/ant-nodeps
    selected: 1.8.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-libs/libgee
    selected: 0.6.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: 0.7.0 

 net-print/gutenprint
    selected: 5.2.7 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/xalan
    selected: 2.7.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/bcel
    selected: 5.2-r2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/javacup
    selected: 0.11a_beta20060608 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/xerces
    selected: 2.9.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/xjavac
    selected: 20041208-r5 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/xml-commons-resolver
    selected: 1.2 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/xalan-serializer
    selected: 2.7.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/xml-commons-external
    selected: 1.3.04 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/ant-core
    selected: 1.8.1 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/javatoolkit
    selected: 0.3.0-r6 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 virtual/jre
    selected: 1.7.0 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 virtual/jdk
    selected: 1.7.0 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/oracle-jdk-bin
    selected: 1.7.0 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/java-config
    selected: 2.1.11-r3 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

 dev-java/java-config-wrapper
    selected: 0.16 
   protected: none 
     omitted: none 

All selected packages: dev-java/java-config-2.1.11-r3 net-print/gutenprint-5.2.7 dev-java/xml-commons-external-1.3.04 dev-java/xml-commons-resolver-1.2 dev-java/javacup-0.11a_beta20060608 dev-java/ant-nodeps-1.8.1 dev-java/xerces-2.9.1 dev-java/bcel-5.2-r2 dev-java/xalan-2.7.1 dev-java/ant-core-1.8.1 dev-java/oracle-jdk-bin-1.7.0 dev-libs/libgee-0.6.1 dev-java/javatoolkit-0.3.0-r6 virtual/jre-1.7.0 dev-java/xalan-serializer-2.7.1 dev-java/xjavac-20041208-r5 virtual/jdk-1.7.0 dev-java/java-config-wrapper-0.16

>>> 'Selected' packages are slated for removal.
>>> 'Protected' and 'omitted' packages will not be removed.

Packages installed:   966
Packages in world:    143
Packages in system:   45
Required packages:    948
Number to remove:     18
oldlap ~ #