On May 13, 2015 12:45:58 AM CEST, Francis Gerund <ranrund@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Sometimes pacman presents updates that just don't seem to apply to my > system. > > Just one example: sudo pacman -Syyuv presents btrfs-progs, even > though: > > 1) I do not, and have not, used the Btrfs file system with my Arch > setup. > > 2) It is "Required by: None" > > 3) It is "Optional for: None" > > But I hate to reject it. After all, there must be some reason it was > presented . . . right? Every installed package is updated on your system. Btrfs-progs is part of the base group, which is part of most arch installations. > So, if I just say "yes" to all upgrades, won't my system over time get > weighed down by excess stuff, until it grinds to a halt? No, since updates rarely ever bring new software to your machine and cleaning the pacman cache gets rid of the additional storage space as well. > Or, if I just make my best guess at what is really need and reject the > rest, won't I have a Frankenstein system that will eventually break? You could try doing that, most packages will have the correct dependencies and complain on a breaking uninstall, but others (usually in community) just plainly (and fairly in terms of packaging effort) expect that you have everything installed from the base group. > And why, why, why doesn't it just present upgrades appropriate for my > system? You have an outdated version of a package installed. It might not even work when some of its dependencies are newer than itself. --Oliver Temlin
