On May 13, 2015 12:45:58 AM CEST, Francis Gerund <ranrund@gmail.com> 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 You have an outdated version of a package installed.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