why do I need openssh?
 

I have never used used ssh and have always removed it from what ever distro I've had. But now Gentoo is telling me ssh is part of the base system and may break my install if removed.

Why is this part of the base system and can it be safely removed.

If you can't remove it, just disable it.

62chevy,

You can remove ssh it but portage will want to reinstall it at your next update. To keep it uninstalled, you will need add its package atom to /etc/portage/package.mask, thats net-misc/openssh

Its in system as many users log in remotely to maintain their Gentoo installs. Its certainly needed on the liveCD, as it allows remote installs, after the passwd is set and sshd started.

I'd rather use /etc/portage/profile/package.provided to inject it. Then you can remove the package. I don't think anything else depends strictly in ssh because there's no library inside that package, just userland tools.

However having it installed doesn't mean you have to run it, it will just take a few mb's of hard disk space.

Thanks everyone. If it's not run what could it hurt, then it would always be there if I needed it. Having a 60gig and 320 gig hard drive well.. :) I'll have to look into masking, could be other programs I dont want installed so then it would be worth --unmerging.

Yes, I would mask it. Also check the use flags. There is probably one there you can switch off (not on my linux machine just now), so that when you "emerge -DNuva world" next time any ssh support in other packages will be removed too.

Mons