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Alan, |
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|
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On Monday, 2021-07-26 19:01:21 +0000, you wrote: |
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|
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> ... |
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> The warning was not very explicit. An explicit warning would have said |
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> "--depclean is capable of removing critical system packages". As it |
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> happened I didn't ignore the warning. But some people might. |
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> |
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> You seem to see nothing wrong with an OS being one keypress away from |
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> destroying itself. I do. |
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|
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You mentioned in an earlier post that you not only got this warning for |
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"openrc" but also for "nano". I remember that after my first Gentoo in- |
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stall ever, I explicitly emerged the packages "vim" (as an emergency |
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fallback) and -- more importantly -- "XEmacs" which were thus added to |
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"@world". I then ran my very first "emerge --ask --depclean" and got |
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that warning about "nano". I do not remember the exact wording, but -- |
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honestly -- I was startled. Not very explicit? When "emerge" is tell- |
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ing me that removing "nano" might result in my system becoming unusable? |
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Or something to that effect? Being a Gentoo novice then, I immediately |
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replied "n", researched the webs, and then with a bit more knowledge and |
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conscience I rerun "emerge --ask --depclean" and bravely typed "y". |
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|
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You were startled, too, when reading that warning, so where exactly is |
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the problem? Had I wanted a third editor I'd have stuffed "nano" into |
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"@world", but I didn't. Since you want "openrc", you should. |
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|
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And yes, some people tend to ignore warnings. In particular, if there |
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are just too many of them. I remember when back in the old days plenty |
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of sources suggested to put "alias rm='rm -i'" into one's profile. I |
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always objected to this, because you'd get so used to typing "y" to the |
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plethora of questions that you'd have an excellent chance to miss the |
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one file which would have been worth retaining. |
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|
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So the most important rule when working with computers still is "Read |
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carefully, think carefully, then type carefully". More warnings, bigger |
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fonts or red colour simply don't cut it. Or are you skimming your "gcc" |
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compilation logs after doing your weekly Gentoo upgrade for every warn- |
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ing in order to then check the source code to see whether or not you |
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should do anything about it? I don't. |
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|
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My two cents ... |
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|
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Sincerely, |
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Rainer |