[Mageia-dev] Orphans - those poor orphans . . .

[andre999]

Sander Lepik a écrit :
> 07.01.2012 12:18, andre999 kirjutas:
>> It is not exactly the same thing, but in more than one occasion when 
>> I installed packages with similar functions at the same time, to 
>> compare them, say A, B, and C, and later uninstalled B and C, I have 
>> found A to be declared an orphan.  Only to find that it had been 
>> required by one of the others.
>> (I often prefer command-line packages.  It is simple to add them to 
>> the menu if I want.  And I have often enough made such comparisons.  
>> To be fair, I haven't done much of that since installing Mageia, when 
>> it first became available.)
> So what you say is:
>
> urpmi A
> urpmi B
> urpmi C

Not at all.  That is installing A, B, and C sequentially, one after the 
other.
Using urpmi, installing at the same time would be

urpmi A B C

Although I'm not sure that it would work the same as rpmdrake, which I 
use so as to more easily select and install packages with similar functions.
I'm sure that most users with similar considerations would do the same.
Of course if one is involved in developing or testing packages, urpmi is 
convenient, but otherwise a graphical interface like rpmdrake is easier.
>
> urpme B C
>
> A would be orphan? Really?! Show me. I want an example!

Not your example.  But that is not what I said.

>> The auto-orphans option and how it currently works is based on the 
>> assumption that if package A is installed as a requirement of package 
>> B, that on uninstalling B, one will want to uninstall A.  That to me 
>> is a false premise.
> You do get the point of orphans?! System has no AI. It only knows what 
> it has to know. If you still want A you would just run urpmi A and 
> urpme --auto-orphans won't remove it! Simple as that.

I understand very well the concept.  My point is that, in terms of what 
users can reasonably expect to happen, and how auto-orphans is applied, 
the concept is flawed.
Telling users that it is safe to remove identified "orphans", where the 
expected functioning of their system can be seriously impacted, is 
simply not appropriate.
(One could say not very "user-friendly".)

BTW, the solution to remove the auto-orphan message for a package, a 
feigned install of an already installed package, is rather obtuse, to 
say the least.
>
> -- 
> Sander
>
-- 
André