[arch-general] definition of "orphan"

Andreas Bosch admin at progandy.de
Fri Mar 12 15:54:12 UTC 2021


Am 12.03.21 um 14:39 schrieb Lukáš Kucharczyk via arch-general:
> I think making the terminology clearer is a benefit
> to English speakers at all levels of language mastery.
> 
> Calling the things what they are,
> that is unmaintained package and unneeded package, is
> an overall improvement to clarity, and also sidesteps the confusion stemming from one word meaning something different
> in different but adjacent contexts.
> 
In the local case, "unneeded" may be too strong. It is possible a
package has been installed as a dependency and later you started to use
its commands directly. If you remove the package depending on it now, it
is not unnecessary.
I think orphaned covers that case well, the final action may be removal
if the package is truly unneeded or a promotion to explicitly installed
status.


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