Dependency management (not strictly Slackware related)
 

This is not strictly Slackware related but I know it will raise a wry smile from a few of you.

I just received an email from a friend who is new to Linux and has started with Ubuntu. His mail begins as follows:

Followed by output from his terminal on attempting to remove libcups2. Now I don't know why he wants to remove cups but that is not really the point. The output looked interesting, so I decided to fire up VirtualBox with Ubuntu 13.10 and try it myself.

Here is what I get (and yes it is pretty much the same as what he saw):

Now of course I am aware that most of those packages are linked to libcups2 directly or indirectly and would indeed break but I have a hard time believing that the best option is to actually remove them all. Consider a user who clicks yes without fully thinking through or understanding the consequences. They will be left with a broken system and the need to reinstall (and hence re-download) almost 300 packages. Compare with a Slackware user who also attempts to remove a key lib due to similar lack of understanding. Again the system would break but the user need only add back that one lib they just removed to restore full functionality.

Sometimes over automation can lead you into a tight spot.

That is why I avoid apt distros, back when I used Debian/Ubuntu I couldn't try to remove anything without apt trying to remove the whole GNOME DE.

what the hell

it remembers me a monthy python sketch; a friend of mine had a similar problem, every packages wanted to install dutch language for openoffice and removing dutch language, was removing all openoffice and part of system libs

isn't there a way to _not_ remove "dependent" packages, keeping upgrading and install new ones? i'm not into apt-get; or use dpkg? but i don't know if it still exists on ubuntu

Sure but it would not be known to a newbie. In this particular case you could have done this:


Your system will still be somewhat broken but it will be a lot faster to fix!

totally right, it's not easy; i started with redhat and got crazy with rpm system and i switched to slackware (still can't remember how and when, i only remember kde2)

Actually I think this points up an important dividing line. What the system depends on isn't necessarily what we depend on. There is no need to actually remove a fundamental program or set of libraries. If you don't need them, don't run them, and they will consume nothing but a little hard drive space. Isn't this an underlying part of Slackware Philosophy, the part that recommends Full Install, making dependencies all but a non-issue?

And some wonder why us crazy Slackers don't care for dependency management!

To me it is one of its best Slackware "features"

not completely true, when i have dependencies lack, program doesn't start blaming some library missing, so i install/compile what i'm missing and launch it again, this works even for version bump;

to feel safe, i have a little script that asks every binary/library for dependencies and output me what is missing, i think i don't need anymore

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...encies-794133/

Agreed. The lack of dependency resolution in Slackware is a strength, not a deficit.