Package pruning for FC4 and beyond - COMPLETE LIST

Chris Adams cmadams at hiwaay.net
Sat Feb 26 20:44:48 UTC 2005


Once upon a time, Eric Warnke <eric at snowmoon.com> said:
> lynx/w3m+w3m-el/elinks - 1 objection about scripts using lynx... ether 
> those scripts are not part of core or they are not marked correctly.  If 
> you can surf the web with either, you can download them from extras.  If 
> either has a dependancy in core the .src.rpm needs to be corrected. 
> Personally I think lynx should go to extras.

At one time, lynx was the only one of those that could do SSL, basic
authentication, etc. (I don't know the current state of all of them
because I use lynx).  I think it may still be the only one that verifies
SSL certificates.

An example of a script that uses lynx is the Apache apachectl script.
IIRC the perl CPAN module can also use it when libwww-perl is not
available.  Since lynx was (and may still be) the widest-spread text
mode browser, many third party and home-grown scripts use it.  I haven't
seen scripts that come out-of-the box that use any of the others; that
would be a reason to keep lynx over the others.

> usermode/utempter - overlaps with sudo

No it doesn't.

> nut - nice package, but is it really core materal?

It should be.  Every UPS at Best Buy and even Wal-Mart has shutdown
software for Windows, and nut is the tool to use for Linux.  It is
useful for both workstations and servers.

> dosfttools - looks like mtools superceeds this package.

Actually mtools predates dosfstools (I used mtools on Suns at least
12-14 years ago IIRC).  However, they don't overlap entirely.  Mtools is
designed mainly to operate on floppies and wants to do things in terms
of drive letters (that have to be configured).  Dosfstools has VFAT mkfs
and fsck utils that work just like other Unix filesystem mkfs/fsck (and
can handle more mkfs options).  I don't think mtools includes an fsck
equivalent.

> strace - looks like ltrace provides same functionality

Not at all.  Strace looks at system calls and ltrace looks library calls
(hence the "s" vs. the "l").

> iptstate - package getting stale

In what way?  Is there duplicated functionality, or is it in way out of
date?  It performs its function (quite well), is up to date with respect
to the interfaces required, and is the only tool for the job I believe.
There are numerous packages that don't get regular updates because they
just work and the requirements don't change.

I built some walls today, but I didn't go buy a new hammer just because
mine is old (although I did look at some new ones at the hardware
store!).

> lftp - useful ftp client ( ftp, ncftp ) D:0

Lftp is much more useful than ncftp (and lftp is in the default install
where ncftp is not).  Drop ncftp instead.

> a2ps - text to postscript tool required by xfprint

No idea how easy a2ps may be to remove, but GNU enscript is another
flexible text to Postscript tool that is also included (don't know if
the functionality is the same though).

> star - tar with acl support.

Yes, and AFAIK there is no included alternative to backing up ACLs.

> pinfo - another text info file browser - do we need two?

The info interface may be great if you are an emacs user, but it is not
for the rest of us.  Pinfo is far superior for normal people.

> freeradius - complex package d:0

So are OpenOffice.org, xorg-x11, kernel, etc.  That is no reason to
remove something.  It is also a useful package for servers.

> mc - Is this really a core util? would it be better served in extras?

There is no other text-mode file manager (except for a basic bit in lynx
IIRC).
-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams at hiwaay.net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.




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