Arch Linux vs. Gentoo Linux

[jaboua]

Brian (awesome name btw), it won't work with large meta packages...try it with gaim or something small.

it does if you try "pacman -Rcs gnome", I've used it several times on big metapackages and it works fine.

From the manpage:

-s, --recursive
For each target specified, remove it and all its dependencies,
provided that (A) they are not required by other packages; and
(B) they were not explicitly installed by the user. This option
is analagous to a backwards --sync operation.

-c, --cascade
Remove all target packages, as well as all packages that depend
on one or more target packages. This operation is recursive.

There are no use-flags for pacman as mentioned. But if you want some different options for the app, you can grasp the socalled "PKGBUILD" from ABS and recompile the package with your own options, and even for your own architecture.

You also got to check out AUR - the Arch User Respiratory - if you try Arch.

ArchLinux User-Community Repository (AUR) is a community driven repository for Arch users. The AUR was initially conceived to organize the sharing of PKGBUILDs amongst the wider community and to expedite the inclusion of popular user-contributed packages into the [current] and [extra] repos via the AUR [community] repo.

It is called to be the birthplace of Arch's new packages. This is because in the AUR, the users contribute their own packages. The AUR community votes for or against them, and eventually, once a package has been voted high enough, a AUR Trusted User takes it to the [community] repository, which is accessible via pacman and ABS.

[bryansmith]

it does if you try "pacman -Rcs gnome", I've used it several times on big metapackages and it works fine.

Awesome, I never knew that. Not that I usually try to remove such large meta packages like GNOME but it's nice to know. Thanks .

Bryan

[Digit]

idk if i've much to add that's not already been said, but i want to throw in my experiences to the discussion too.

i've had gentoo based systems (sabayon, toorox) on my workstation for a few years. started using arch on my laptop a few months back.

after some blatant foolish pebcak with gentoo after a complete system upgrade (why o why did i pick option -5 when updating configs, i even knew it was a bad idea at the time), given my enjoyable experiences with arch, i thought i'd give arch a shot on the workstation too.

i'm a bit of an avid distro surfer, so with 13 partitions for opperating systems just on my first drive alone, toorox (and several sabayons) still happily exists there too should i want to go back to using gentoo.

gentoo's immensely powerful customiseability is generally more readily available, when it comes to installing packages. useflags are where much of this power is at. it does seem to be a bit more work, and require more knowledge (thats harder to aquire), to maintain a gentoo system. dont get me wrong though, for years (even before i started using gentoo based systems) i had been singing gentoo's praises on their documentation.

... however, arch's wiki is now second to none. a far more expedient learning experience (especially for a dislexic like me). i'm just learning how to use the arch build system (abs), which i see as the third teir to arch's package management. pacman first, aur (and an aur wrapper, like packer or yaourt) second, then further afeild, the abs. it was learning of the existence of the abs that actually got me interested in trying arch, not wanting to loose this sort of power that i had become so accustomed to being immediately available to me in gentoo. ...and it's here on this point, that gentoo actually wins a useability/expediency award point over arch. but since pacman and packer are so nice, it's been months before i've felt the need to delve into the abs.

there are a number of areas that have caused problems while configuring my workstation to work with arch (which i wont bore you with an exhaustive elaboration on), which werent issues at all with any of my sabayon/toorox installs over the years.
... i managed to get my laptop up n running just how i like, with arch, in less than 24 hours (bar a few loose ends, picked up over a few days/weeks, as they cropped up), which was surprisingly quick, thinking i'd be tinkering for the better part of a week. painlessly smooth.

from my experiences so far, i'm kinda expecting that where gentoo's biggest failing was making pebcak errors too easy, arch seems more likely to throw me for a loop, through no significant pebcak, n i'll likely be chasing down problems from such bleeding edge insistence.
...not to worry though, the arch community support is excellent, the wiki is excellent, and it's proving to be a very fast learning experience... and that's the biggest selling point for me... it's making me more knowledgeable and skilled, faster/sooner.

well, idk if my waffle was either clear or useful, but i had fun. ^_^
...and i just saw the date on the last reply there... eep! i hope linuxforums arent strict anti-necro like at archlinuxforums (a policy i dont much care for). well, posting anyways... since i've already typed all that. ^_^