[arch-general] How to track packages dropped from the repos?

[Maximilian Bräutigam]

Am 19.04.2014 12:39, schrieb Lorenzo Bandieri:
> Hi list,
>
> Sometimes packages are silently dropped from the repos. This happened
> for example in the last few days with mash 0.2.0-3, which apparently I
> installed as a dependency for gnome (I guess it is no longer
> required). I follow arch-general, arch-dev-public and aur-general, and
> as far as I know, this change wasn't announced in any of these lists.
> I recall other examples in the last 2-3 years (this is roughly the
> time I've used arch consistently), but now I don't remember the
> packages involved.
>
> Currently I try to keep track of these changes by running e.g. "pacman
> -Qm" and "pacman -Qdt" once in a while, so it's no big deal. However,
> I think it would be interesting to know from a more "official" channel
> when a package is dropped and why. This would allow users to be aware
> of the change and decide whether the package is still needed (and act
> accordingly, e.g. if the package is dropped to AUR, one could
> subscribe to comments or check for updates) or can be safely
> uninstalled.
>
> I searched without finding anything decisive (e.g. these threads [1]
> [2] suggest possible workarounds in the form of scripts). I wonder if
> better methods to track dropped packages exist; if not, would it be
> feasible to implement a solution, e.g. a list where dropped packages
> are announced, similar to "last rites" in gentoo?
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Lorenzo
>
> [1] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=147574
> [2] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=125665
>


Hi Lorenzo,

I am using yaourt to track packages from aur (and possibly packages 
moved from official repos to aur). Note, that it is not an official 
peace of software and you should read the wiki carefully. [1]

Best wishes,
Max

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Yaourt