Questions about kde-utilities-meta

I want to remove some of the utilities meta package like kfloppy and kteatime, but i’m getting a dependency error. If I deleted the whole package, is it possible to install the specific parts i want independently like kate konsole yakuake kcalc ?

Wait for expert before doing this (or independently verify from Archwiki!) but my understanding of these meta-packages is that you can remove the meta-package (without removing any of the pkgs included in it) THEN remove the unwanted pkgs that were originally brought in with the meta.

As I said - that is MY understanding, and is not guaranteed to be accurate - but a little searching should confirm or deny…

If you just try it - back up your settings and configs for items you intend to keep from that meta package!

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This is how I have come to understand it as well. They are like “shopping lists”. Once your done, you could throw them away without nothing of what you have bought being thrown away.

It would certainly help if you could post what command you run and the whole output from the terminal.

You could also check: pactree -r PACKAGE to see what other packages are dependent on PACKAGE.

[xavierice@endos ~]$ pactree -r kde-utilities-meta
kde-utilities-meta

but archwiki lists all packages as dependency

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/kde-utilities-meta/

I guess they are specified as dependencies to get them all installed with kde-utilities-meta. Once installed kde-utilities-meta serves no purpose. Unless if it gets updated all the rest will automatically get updated through it, if I am not mistaken. They are not dependent on it.

Anyways,

shows that nothing is dependent on this one.

What does sudo pacman -R kde-utilities-meta say? If only the one package is to be removed so go ahead!

edit:

Meta-packages in a nutshell

A ‘meta-package’ is a convenient way to bulk-install groups of applications, their libraries and documentation. Many Linux distributions use them for a variety of purposes, from seeding disk images that will go on to become new releases, to creating software “bundles” that are easy for a user to install. A meta-package rarely contains anything other than a changelog and perhaps copyright information, it contains no applications or libraries within itself. The way they work is by having a list of “dependencies” that the package manager reads. The package manager then goes to the repositories to find the dependencies and installs them.
https://www.linux.com/training-tutorials/what-are-linux-meta-packages/

The way meta packages work is that they are empty packages that have everything added as dependencies.

If you want to remove something that is part of a meta package. You need to do a few things.

  • Make sure you have the package expac installed
  • Convert the individual packages to explicitly installed sudo pacman -D --asexplicit $(expac -S '%D' kde-utilities-meta)
  • Remove the meta package sudo pacman -R kde-utilities-meta
  • Remove the packages you don’t want sudo pacman -R kteatime kfloppy
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So without having them explicitly installed, if you remove the metapackage they will end up as orphans?

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Exactly. Because they were brought in as dependencies.

This is why I almost use groups instead of meta packages.

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I get it! I had a more shallow understanding of it before. Thanks!

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In the above case, if the OP has already gone ahead with removing the metapackage, hopefully no harm is done? They just have to mark as explicit all the packages previously installed through it one by one?

Or just copy/paste the package list from pacman -Si kde-utilities-meta

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sudo pacman -D --asexplicit $(expac -S ‘%D’ kde-utilties-meta)
bash: expac: command not found
error: no targets specified (use -h for help)

:question:

Did you skip the step immediately preceding that one?

Whoops. My bad. After installing expac:

sudo pacman -D --asexplicit $(expac -S ‘%D’ kde-utilties-meta)
error: no targets specified (use -h for help)

That only works if you still have meta package installed, did you remove it already?

EDIT: Actually expac should work even if it isn’t installed.

Nope, still installed

In that case, I probably spelled “utilities” wrong :rofl:

Try fixing the package name. Sorry about that.

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Yup. Sorry I didn’t notice either, remoting at the moment.

Thanks for the help :slight_smile:

sudo pacman -D --asexplicit $(expac -S ‘%D’ kde-utilities-meta)
ark: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
filelight: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kate: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kbackup: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kcalc: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kcharselect: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kdebugsettings: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kdf: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kdialog: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
keditbookmarks: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kfind: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kfloppy: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kgpg: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
konsole: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kteatime: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
ktimer: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kwalletmanager: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
kwrite: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
markdownpart: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
print-manager: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
sweeper: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’
yakuake: install reason has been set to ‘explicitly installed’

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