[Yum] Dependencies on Removing Packages

[Jean Francois Martinez]

There is also the issue of non-packaged software.  We can consider this
is bad practice but many people don't have the patience to build proper
RPMS and use the infamous ./configure; make; make install.  There is
also the problem of in-house software and ad-hoc admin scripts.

If you allow the recursive deletion of packages you will have LOTS of
very unhappy people when at the 10 th depth level of recursion the
uninstaller removes something needed by an important but non-RPMized
application.
  

On Fri, 2005-04-01 at 20:39 -0700, Michael Stenner wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 01, 2005 at 11:25:20PM -0300, Daniel Bolgheroni wrote:
> > I'm trying to remove some packages in a different way. By default, yum
> > removes all packages that depends on the one being removed.
> > 
> > The portable NetBSD package system (runs on GNU/Linux too) has useful
> > options regarding this, like -r and -R in pkg_delete. The parameter -r
> > is what yum does, by default.
> > 
> > I would like to remove the given package and any packages it depends on,
> > unless some other package still needs a dependent package.
> > 
> > Are there any way to do this with yum?
> 
> No.  This is an interesting concept.  There is an obvious case when
> this is undesirable.  Lets say foo depends on bar.  If the user never
> uses bar directly, and nothing else depends on bar, then it's great to
> remove it when you remove foo.  For example, it might be nice to have
> xmms-mp3 go away when I remove xmms.  However, what if the user DOES
> use bar directly.  This can't show up as a dep, of course.  For
> example, k3b depends on cdrecord.
> 
> Don't get me wrong.  I'm not criticizing the option.  I'm just curious
> how often the scenario I describe is an issue.
> 
> In any event, I doubt it's likely to become an option in yum, although
> it may be a good candidate for a plugin.  This leads me to ask: will
> there be a facility for the plugins to take command-line args?  Menno?
> 
> /me ducks
> 					-Michael
-- 
Jean Francois Martinez <jfm512 at free.fr>