Make dependencies - clarify confusion

This post basically says when using yay it doesn’t matter if I choose yes or no to question Remove make dependencies after install? [y/N]

  • Yes - I want more free space on my SDD.
  • No - I dont care about extra spaced used on my SDD

Another post:

When you install packages from AUR, your system has to compile them. To do so, it needs to use some other packages, called dependencies .
See this as assembling some furniture. You need some tools, let’s say a hammer and a screwdriver, but only for the assembling part : they are not useful to you anymore after the furniture is ready.
Some dependencies are still needed after the main package is installed, others are not, so the system is asking you whether you want to keep them in case you need them again later, or just to remove them. source

“Some dependencies are still needed after the main package is installed…” - Is this valid claim or not?


First person says it doesn’t matter really, other person says it could matter? So does it or does it not matter?

Example


Assuming sometimes I need some make depencies to the package installed to work properly. How to know when from [Repo Make:16] which ones I need?

Make dependencies are needed only when you build the package.
If you don’t need them for anything else than building, you can remove them.

If another package needs those previous make dependencies, then it will install them as needed.

I’d remove the make dependencies unless I already know I will be needing them soon.

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Make dependencies are not used for anything apart from building the packages. Once package is built and installed, you don’t need make dependencies.

If you remove make dependencies, you will be installing them again when you next update the original package. So, if the original package gets frequent updates, you want to keep make dependencies.

On the other hand, if the original packages do not get frequently updated, then there’s no point keeping make dependencies and updating. yay will re-install make dependencies whenever I update the original package.

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Thanks for clarifying this @manuel @flyingcakes

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