Experiencing a mis-hap in an update, I wanted to back up one step by
removing the suspected package. I then selected this package with YumEx
(graphical front-end for yum) in the "installed list" and asked it to be
removed. To my surprise, the dependency "transitive closure computation"
concluded that nearly all packages should be removed, even ones not
clearly related to my purpose (Explanation by the example: cups to be
removed; after dependency, open-office, kde, gnome, ..., maybe even
kernel to be removed also).
If the dependency computation used for package removal is the same as
for inclusion, it seems to me this is a design flaw. For inclusion, it
is perfectly right to compute a transitive closure and to add all
packages needed. For deletion, the dependency computation should only
decrement the "in-use" counter of the referenced package. Only when this
in-use counter goes to zero should the referenced package be put on the
removal list. Think of the way the i-nodes are deleted by Unix-like OS
in presence of hard links.
I admit that in some circumstances this approach can't be totally
fail-safe. For instance, you included an "independant" package A (not
referenced nor referencing). You then install package B referencing A.
If you remove B, you also remove A. But this situation can be quite
manageable compared to the present flooding strategy capable of
dramatically damaging a working system.
Configuration:
yum 3.0.6 (not the most up-to-date but coming from packages FC6)
yumex 2.0.1
i686 box running linux 2.6.22
Best regards,
A Littoz
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