[Mageia-dev] Orphans - those poor orphans . . .

Sun Jan 8 17:01:10 CET 2012

On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 14:24, Wolfgang Bornath <molch.b at googlemail.com> wrote:
+> 2012/1/7 Sander Lepik <sander.lepik at eesti.ee>:
+>> 07.01.2012 13:39, Wolfgang Bornath kirjutas:
+>>>
+>>> Of course this is one way to find bugs in packages. But what about the
+>>> documented (in German) case where
+>>>  - after fresh installation, reboot (ok) and updates right after
+>>> installation I was presented with a list of more than 100 "orphans".
+>>>  - I ran 'urpme --auto-orphans' and rebooted
+>>>  - several system services (which started successfully after
+>>> installation) refused to start now because of missing files
+>>>
+>>> Of course urpmi was not the culprit because it only checks
+>>> dependencies. But that did matter in that situation. The auto-orphans
+>>> function obviously listed packages which may have no dependencies but
+>>> are needed by the system. That's why I do not complain about urpmi but
+>>> about the whole function. As long as this function is only based on
+>>> package dependencies it is not safe to use it.
+>>
+>> Did you choose custom install and unchecked some options? Or did you use
+>> LiveCD maybe? Anyway.. function is not to blame. Next time copy those
+>> packages that are going to be uninstalled. And they can be rechecked. Which
+>> are needed and why they get orphaned.
+>
+> Used the full DVD (32-bit) Mageia 2 Alpha 2
+>  - minimal install with X
+>  - after installation and reboot everything was ok
+>  - setup the package media (dedicated mirror) and did 'urpmi -auto-update'
+>  - I did NOT install or remove one single package manually
+>  - after that urpmi showed a list of more than 100 orphans
+>  - used 'urpme -auto-orphans
+>  - at reboot the start messages showed several errors concerning
+> crond, network-up, postfix, display manager, etc. - system start
+> stopped before x was started. Repeated the boot process with same
+> result.
+>
+> A side question is why I got so many orphans in a minimal system with
+> only around 700 packages in total and only around 2 or 3 dozens of
+> updates (all this happened not long after Alpha 2 release.)
+>
+> Of course urpmi is not the culprit, it is the shortcomings of the
+> function as it is. It should just not be there if its use could lead
+> to such behavior, no matter where the cause comes from. Simply said: a
+> gasoline brand should not be sold if it could do damage to the car's
+> motor, no matter which of the components of the fluid causes the
+> damage..
+>
+> Anyhow, I will repeat the same operation when Alpha 2 is released in a
+> couple of days and as soon as the system shows orphans I will document
+> that list and (if the same problem arises) dmesg output if available.
+> What else do you need for a reasonable documentation?
+
+Thanks, this is obviously an installation bug as those packages should
+be listed as requested.
+