Hello, Eli. On Mon, Feb 09, 2026 at 15:50:27 -0500, Eli Schwartz wrote: > On 2/9/26 12:04 PM, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > It took me some while to work out what you meant by "installed", > > especially given that the ebuild for php-8.2.28-r1 has been deleted > > (from /usr/portage/dev-lang/php/...). I think you mean that there is a > > directory /var/db/pkg/dev-lang/php-8.2.28-r1, which is indeed the case. > > > > [ Yes, I know /usr/portage is no longer the canonical place for ebuilds > > to live, but this is a system from 2017, originally. ] > > > > So emerge @preserved-rebuild is getting its information from > > /var/db/pkg, it seems. > > > > It is surely a bug that the ebuild can be removed from /usr/portage/... > > whilst leaving that orphan directory in place under /var/db/.... It is > > true that there is a second copy of the ebuild under /var/db/.... but > > emerge doesn't look there for ebuilds. > SIR!!! > The package is installed because there is a file /usr/bin/php8.2 > installed, and it is *the package* that installed it. I think it more the other way around. The directory exists in /usr/bin because the package is installed. It's just the meaning of "package installed" which I was trying to clarify. > ebuilds are NOT packages. They are bash scripts describing how to build > a package. Removing an ebuild from /usr/portage (2017) or /var/db/repos > (new canonical place) removes the bash script describing how to build > it. It does NOT remove /usr/bin/php8.2, that would be insane... I spent quite a bit of yesterday evening trying to find where this is explained in the docs. I haven't found anything clearly outlining the difference between ebuilds and packages, and the fact that the latter can continue to exist after the deletion of the former. > ... hence the package is installed, still. Yes. > /var/db/pkg is not "orphaned" nor is it a bug, it is the database of > installed files etc. The database of installed packages. Yes, got that now, thanks. > >> If you don't need this package and emerge -pvc shows nothing requiring > >> it, maybe you can just remove it (e.g. with emerge -avc)? > > I can't use emerge, because there's no ebuild for php-8.2.28-r1. It's > > looking as though I'll have to delete the directory under /var/db/... by > > hand, together with all the associated files throughout the system. > > Or, maybe if I let # USE='...' emerge =dev-lang/php-8.2.30 go ahead, it > > will clear out the old directory in /var/db/... Maybe. > > Is this worth a bug report, or have I misunderstood something else? > I already told you the same thing, though. My previous email: I wasn't sure whether or not you were giving me a solution or a workaround. At that stage I hadn't yet understood what my problem was. But I've now removed php-8.2.n entirely. > >> I've cleaned up my orphan packages (most of them), but don't trust > >> --depclean to do so. It still wants to remove some packages I need and > >> want to keep. > > It will, by definition, remove packages not in world (emerge foobar > > without --oneshot). > > So, one must conclude you, for whatever reason, wished to oneshot these > > packages and not add them to world. No, that's not the case. The particular package is daemontools, and I most certainly didn't give it the -1 when installing. Why would I? It got caught up in a portage mixup with the OpenRC's daemon handler. This is now fixed, but somehow daemontools hasn't made it into my @world. This is just one isolated instance, but there might be more isolated instances by which --depclean could render my system unbootable. So, like it itself directs, I always check very carefully the suggestions it makes for removal. > > This is your choice and your right, but it renders depclean ineffective. As I say I don't trust --depclean. I check its suggestions carefully, then delete (some of) them by hand. For example, I don't let it remove older kernel packages, or older gcc versions. > > You may run: > > emerge --depclean php:8.2 --verbose > > and due to verbose, it will tell you what package, if any, prevents > > php:8.2 from being explicitly uninstalled. > > Otherwise, seek out the rest of your orphaned packages. > Please run: > emerge --depclean php:8.2 --verbose > as I asked. The package is already gone, now that I understand it. Thanks for all the help! > -- > Eli Schwartz -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
