On 2/10/26 9:13 AM, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
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.
If one manages the world file correctly, there's no reason not to trust
it. Sure, don't run it blindly, without -a, just in case one wants to
keep a package and missed adding it to the world file but still, that
isn't the fault of emerge. I sometimes install a package to play with
and forget to add it to the world file myself. A emerge -n --select y
<package> corrects that tho. The --select y overrides the --oneshot
option in make.conf.
If you want to keep older versions of the kernel, gcc and others, just
add that version to your world file. Then --depclean won't try to
remove it since it is in the world file. I do that here and it works
fine. Examples for my kernel, gcc would work as well.
root@Gentoo-1 / # cat /var/lib/portage/world | grep gentoo-sources
sys-kernel/gentoo-sources:6.14.0
sys-kernel/gentoo-sources:6.9.10
sys-kernel/gentoo-sources:6.9.4
root@Gentoo-1 / #
When I run --depclean, emerge doesn't touch those versions of my
kernels. When I upgrade to a newer kernel, I may remove the oldest,
from /boot and from the world file. I usually keep 2 or 3 kernels just
in case one gets corrupted or something. I then add the new kernel,
version to, to the world file.
I've posted this before and I suspect you won't do it this way but I'll
post this again just in case. When I first built this new rig and was
installing my packages, my work flow was like this. I did the base
install download. I edited the make.conf file and checked the USE flag
line as the install guide explains. I also added some packages to the
correct files for some unstable packages as well. I then updated the
tree and all packages using emerge -auDN world. I then started
installing all the packages from the world file of my old system. I
started with the desktop environment, KDE for me, web browsers and
worked my way down until I had everything I wanted on my new rig. Some
packages were just for my old system and not needed on the new system.
Once I had everything installed that *I* wanted, I added --oneshot to
the emerge options in my make.conf file. That way nothing gets
accidentally added to my world file while I work around the occasional
problems I may run into during updates or installing a new package
dependency. I've seen far to many post a problem with a upgrade and it
ends up that there is clutter in the world file. Things that are there,
even versioned packages, that should not be there at all. It almost
always happens because a person didn't know to use --oneshot or forgot
to use it. It's a very easy mistake. I did that a lot before adding
--oneshot to make.conf and emerge options.
My upgrade process is quite simple and works very well even tho I have
some stable and some unstable packages. That's something most don't
recommend. I sync the tree, I use eix-sync, and then run emerge -auDN
world and look for any USE flag changes I don't like. I change USE flags
if needed, usually don't, and then let the upgrade proceed, restarting
emerge command if I made USE flag changes.
For the most part, my updates are no harder than a binary based distro.
I check for updates, check for USE flag changes, then update. Most of
the time, without any problems.
One thing I've learned, if a person has a lot of problems updating,
usually it is because the person isn't using the right method or bad
entries are in the world file or somewhere in /etc/portage/*. If you
try to apply what you think in place of how emerge expects things to be
done, you cause problems in most cases. Even when I started using
Gentoo back in 2003, it didn't take me long to figure out how emerge
wanted me to do things. Once I learned how to do what it expects, my
life got a lot easier. Today, emerge and the work the devs do make it a
whole lot easier. Today, emerge manages deps and such a LOT better.
The devs have really done a awesome job making emerge work better. The
trick is, don't argue with emerge, learn what it expects and then do it
that way. You try to argue with emerge, you make it hard on yourself or
you just lose the argument.
Now it's up to you how you want to proceed. Just thought I'd share some
info that just might help, you or some other person that hasn't learned
the lessons I have, yet. If you need more details, just ask.
Dale
:-) :-)
