Script: blackpac

«Downloads

Download Links:	download blackpac – view source – verify – AUR
Description:	Blacklists Arch Linux packages so that they may be removed despite dependencies
Recommended For:	Arch Linux
Tested On:	Arch Linux
Current Version:	1.0.1
Requires:
Related:	paccheck
License:	GNU GPL v3     * SEE DISCLAIMER *
Bugs/Requests:	SourceForge Tracker

Overview

Blackpac maintains a blacklist of packages which is used to create a dummy package, ‘blackpacdummy’, which makes pacman believe it provides the blacklisted packages. This allows you to remove the blacklisted packages from your system despite other packages which depend on them. Blackpac is designed to give the user greater control over what packages are installed, and to override pacman’s dependency checking. Blackpac can also remove and install blacklisted packages, via pacman, as they are listed and unlisted in the blacklist, or you can do this yourself.

WARNING: This script is for advanced users who understand the implications and consequences of removing packages that are required by other packages. It is YOUR responsibility to determine what packages are safe to remove in this manner.

blackpac --help Usage: blackpac OPTION [...] Blacklists packages so that they may be removed; packages which depend on them are satisfied by the dummy package 'blackpacdummy'. Designed for use on Arch Linux. All options except --show require blackpac to be run as root. One or more options are required: --blacklist PACKAGE [...] add PACKAGE(s) to the blacklist (/etc/blackpaclist) and update blackpacdummy --unlist PACKAGE [...] install PACKAGE(s), remove them from the blacklist, and update blackpacdummy --unlistall install blacklisted packages, clear the blacklist of all entries, and remove blackpacdummy --update add packages in the blacklist to blackpacdummy (use after manually editing blackpaclist) --remove use "pacman -R" to remove all blacklisted packages (updates blackpackdummy first) --removes use "pacman -Rs" to remove all blacklisted packages and their unneeded dependencies --noinstall do not automatically install packages before unlisting them (this may prevent successful update or removal of blackpacdummy) --show show list of blacklisted packages currently provided by blackpacdummy and list of packages that currently depend on blackpacdummy WARNING: Removing packages may break other packages and cause serious system malfunction! It is up to YOU to decide what packages are safe to remove from your system.

By default, the blacklist is stored in /etc/blackpaclist. The best way to update the list is to use blackpac to do so. The list may also be edited directly, in which case you will need to run “blackpac ––update” to recreate blackpacdummy.

blackpackdummy is a dummy package, built and installed automatically by blackpac, which installs no files. It simply tells pacman that it provides all of the packages you have blacklisted, giving them a version number of ‘999’, so that you may then remove them without being told other packages depend on them, or on later versions of them. This is similar to using “pacman -Rd packagename” to remove a package regardless of dependencies, except that method does not prevent future updates from reinstalling the package, whereas blackpac’s method should.

Blacklisting a package through blackpac will add the package to the list of what blackpacdummy provides, reinstall blackpacdummy, and update the blacklist. It will not remove the package unless the “––remove” or “––removes” options are also included.

When unlisting a package, blackpac will first run pacman for you to install the package(s) which are being unlisted. If installation is successful, then they are unlisted from the blacklist and removed from blackpackdummy. If you do not want blackpac to attempt installation of the packages being unlisted, include the “––noinstall” option. However, this may create an error when pacman tries to update blackpacdummy. blackpackdummy provides dependencies (as far as pacman is concerned), so you may not be able to remove or update it without installing the packages it provides. (You can see what currently depends on blackpacdummy and what it provides with “blackpac ––show”, which is equivalent to “pacman -Qi blackpacdummy”.)

To illustrate the use and advantages of blackpac, a sample run is below. In this case, installing kmail required the installation of kdelibs and kdepimlibs. However, these in turn had dependencies on akonadi and soprano, which in turn had dependencies on mysql and mysql-clients. It turns out that for most if not all uses, kmail does NOT require akonadi or soprano [Update: As of KDE 4.4, kmail DOES require akonadi]. They may be removed without causing problems on my system – the only barrier was pacman requiring them. The following example shows me removing akonadi and soprano, and their dependencies, using blackpac. (Commands issued are shown in red, output in black.)

# First, I will check what is installed root:/# pacman -Q akonadi soprano mysql mysql-clients blackpacdummy akonadi 1.2.1-3 soprano 2.3.1-2 mysql 5.1.42-1 mysql-clients 5.1.42-1 error: package "blackpacdummy" not found # Next, I will try to remove them without blackpac, which won't work root:/# pacman -R akonadi soprano checking dependencies... error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies) :: kdelibs: requires soprano :: kdepimlibs: requires akonadi>=1.1.90 # Now I will blacklist them with blackpac, and will include the # --removes option to tell blackpac to run pacman and remove them and their # dependencies (use with caution) root:/# blackpac --removes --blacklist akonadi soprano Blacklisting akonadi... Blacklisting soprano... Building blackpacdummy... Installing blackpacdummy... >>> pacman --noconfirm -U "/tmp/blackpac.tmp/blackpacdummy-1.0.0-1-any.pkg.tar.gz" loading package data... checking dependencies... (1/1) checking for file conflicts [###################] 100% (1/1) installing blackpacdummy [###################] 100% Removing blacklisted packages... >>> pacman -Rs akonadi soprano checking dependencies... Remove (4): akonadi-1.2.1-3 mysql-5.1.42-1 mysql-clients-5.1.42-1 soprano-2.3.1-2 Total Removed Size: 67.83 MB Do you want to remove these packages? [Y/n] (1/4) removing akonadi [###################] 100% (2/4) removing mysql [###################] 100% (3/4) removing mysql-clients [###################] 100% (4/4) removing soprano [###################] 100% # Now I will look at what blackpacdummy is providing, and what # depends on it root:/# blackpac --show Showing dependencies... (see the 'Provides:' and 'Required By:' lines below) >>> pacman -Qi blackpacdummy Name : blackpacdummy Version : 1.0.0-1 URL : https://igurublog.wordpress.com/downloads/script-blackpac/ Licenses : unknown Groups : None Provides : akonadi=999 soprano=999 Depends On : None Optional Deps : None Required By : kdelibs kdepimlibs Conflicts With : None Replaces : None Installed Size : 4.00 K Packager : IgnorantGuru [https://igurublog.wordpress.com/contact-ignorantguru/] Architecture : any Build Date : Fri 15 Jan 2010 05:37:57 PM MST Install Date : Fri 15 Jan 2010 05:37:57 PM MST Install Reason : Explicitly installed Install Script : No Description : Dummy package created by blackpac to provide blacklisted packages # Now I will attempt to remove blackpacdummy, which won't # work because kdelibs and kdepimlibs require it root:/# pacman -R blackpacdummy checking dependencies... error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies) :: kdelibs: requires soprano :: kdepimlibs: requires akonadi>=1.1.90 # Now I will tell blackpac to unlist everything in the blacklist # (akonadi and soprano), which will cause it to first run pacman so I can install # them root:/# blackpac --unlistall Installing blacklisted packages... >>> pacman --needed -S akonadi soprano resolving dependencies... looking for inter-conflicts... Targets (4): mysql-clients-5.1.42-1 mysql-5.1.42-1 soprano-2.3.1-2 akonadi-1.2.1-3 Total Download Size: 0.00 MB Total Installed Size: 67.83 MB Proceed with installation? [Y/n] checking package integrity... (4/4) checking for file conflicts [###################] 100% (1/4) installing mysql-clients [###################] 100% (2/4) installing mysql [###################] 100% (3/4) installing soprano [###################] 100% (4/4) installing akonadi [###################] 100% Unlisting akonadi... Unlisting soprano... Building blackpacdummy... Removing blackpacdummy (blacklist is empty)... >>> pacman --noconfirm -R blackpacdummy checking dependencies... (1/1) removing blackpacdummy [###################] 100% # Now let's see what's installed - we're back to where we started root:/# pacman -Q akonadi soprano mysql mysql-clients blackpacdummy akonadi 1.2.1-3 soprano 2.3.1-2 mysql 5.1.42-1 mysql-clients 5.1.42-1 error: package "blackpacdummy" not found

In just this one example, blackpac allowed me to remove 68MB of packages from my system, not to mention packages I simply don’t want installed, without breaking anything I use. And it allowed me to un-blacklist them and reinstall them with one command.

As demonstrated above, unlisting a package and installing it will generally undo any changes. Nevertheless, remove blacklisted packages with caution as removing the wrong packages can cause system failure. In all events, it never hurts to be prepared with a recent system backup.

Related Arch Forums Thread: blackpac – blacklist and remove packages

Installation Instructions

You may use the AUR or “yaourt -S blackpac”. (The PKGBUILD will always download and build the latest version.)

Or, follow the standard Script Installation Instructions.