[SOLVED] Should I care about orphan files?

[Garthhh]

I keep seeing warnings prompting me to consider remove orphans, generated when installing this or that...
are they of any concern?
I did see the example of why one should be cautious when removing orphans

[marja]

Unless you have loads of them and you're running out on space on your / partition, I wouldn't care about them.

If you're running out of space, I'd first look at /tmp to see whether that directory isn't filling up.

If you really need to remove unneeded packages, you can check whether something else still depends on them with

Code: Select all

urpmq --whatrequires <full-packagename-and-version>

[Garthhh]

Ahh remnants of an earlier time when HDD space was precious & expensive
are we unique in that MCC makes note of them?
is there a command to pull up a list of all orphans[& size]?

[doktor5000]

Check https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Removing_packages

[Garthhh]

Check https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Removing_packages

as I said I saw that page
which doesn't give me any idea of the magnitude of any potential orphan problem on an individual system...

[ghmitch]

Orphan packages are almost NEVER a problem if you have plenty of space on your system. Removing them, however, CAN lead to problems because sometimes "orphan" packages are actually required for proper functioning of the system. I know that sounds strange, but consider this simplistic example. Package A depends on package B which is, for example, Gimp, the Linux equivilant of Photoshop. You remove package A. In terms of dependencies, Gimp is now "orphaned". But would you want to remove Gimp simply because it is now "orphaned"? Any package that fulfulls a dependency can be labeled as being orphaned when the dependant package is removed AND it will stay on the list of orphaned packages forever. That is why one has to be very careful when attempting to remove orphaned packages. If I were you, I really wouldn't worry at all about removing orphaned packages UNLESS you are starving for drive space. In fact, I really don't know why that pop up message is enabled. There REALLY needs to be some smarter way to deal with orphaned packages, and until there is, it is really better to just leave sleeping dogs lie. In other words, to leave them alone. I HOPE that is a clear enough answer for you. - George

[Garthhh]

Thanks George [wish I was on the ocean this week]

That Would be the answer I would expect
I've never removed orphans on any of the 3 versions of mageia
I saw the bit on the wiki when doing my yearly fresh Install
I did play around & do an upgrade
With the updating of the file system & my moving to xfce [ m2 kde, m1 gnome], I figured best to do a clean install

I think that I'll be able to upgrade next year & forward...
It's not unusual to have a member talk about upgrading from Mandriva...
unless the pile of useless code got bigger than 10g
who cares!!

I can build a new system far quicker than I could sort through the detritus
But I stick with fairly basic stuff & keep a couple of copies of any content I cherish

the wiki could probably use a couple of sentences reflecting your realistic view

[doktor5000]

In fact, I really don't know why that pop up message is enabled. There REALLY needs to be some smarter way to deal with orphaned packages, and until there is, it is really better to just leave sleeping dogs lie. In other words, to leave them alone.

IMHO the pop-up should be opt-in and disabled by default. What we have already achieved by talking to the developer,
is to rephrase the text of the popup, so that it doesn't say "You can remove the following list of packages with urpme --auto-orphans"

Apart from that, you can manage orphans more fine-grained and selectively remove some qith qt4urpm as mentioned on the wiki page:
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Removing_pac ... ge_orphans
BTW, this tool has been written by two members of the german community, who also didn't like the orphans handling.
So something can be done about this, if you really want it.

[ghmitch]

Thanks George [wish I was on the ocean this week]

Don't suffer from too much envy. Its in the mid 80's in the neighborhood I am in. But then I can always drive to the beach five minutes away where its in the 50's. But then, of course, you freeze to death. - George

[doktor5000]

In fact, I really don't know why that pop up message is enabled. There REALLY needs to be some smarter way to deal with orphaned packages, and until there is, it is really better to just leave sleeping dogs lie. In other words, to leave them alone.

IMHO the pop-up should be opt-in and disabled by default. What we have already achieved by talking to the developer,
is to rephrase the text of the popup, so that it doesn't say "You can remove the following list of packages with urpme --auto-orphans"
[...]
So something can be done about this, if you really want it.

We're on the same page
thanks for fixing the issue upstream
something along the lines of a
Do Not Show this message again
check box?

[doktor5000]

You recognize that Mageia is "upstream" in this case? So if you want something, get into discussion with the relevant people,
or file bugreports with proper justification and reasoning and get many people to comment/vote/agree on those.

Apart from that, as mentioned multiple times before, please don't use fullquotes.
And yes, i saw your previous report when given that advice before - remember, using rude words will not make you more right if you're wrong.

[Garthhh]

Thanks George [wish I was on the ocean this week]

Don't suffer from too much envy. Its in the mid 80's in the neighborhood I am in. But then I can always drive to the beach five minutes away where its in the 50's. But then, of course, you freeze to death. - George

http://instantrimshot.com/index.php?sou ... &play=true

if you take this thread out of context
it sounds bad
ignore the orphans