Installing one package out of many! A Fedora problem or developer problem

[jakebpg]

How do you install one of many software packs from a package that contains many programs that you do NOT want to install. For instance kdiskfree which is in the kde utilities package. I only want to install software that I know I will need to restore or repair a system back to a bootable system to a minimum. Only the software that I want instead of having to install 10 different executables just for the one I want.

I'm building kind of a rescue flash drive that I need to keep the amount of software to a minimal set. I have already installed F14 and KDE but am having problems trying to install just the software I want without all the other stuff that either fedora or the KDE team decided I need to install along with it which is useless for my needs!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[jpollard]

The problem that occurs is that the package you want to install may
have dependencies... and without those additional packages, the one
you want will not function.

for instance - kdiskfree appears to be a KDE utility (assuming you are
referring to KDiskFree). As such the program depends on the KDE
environment which has a fairly large number of requirements.

Without these, KDiskFree will not work.

If you are trying for a minimal system, DON'T include a GUI. That
alone requires a HUGE amount of software.

[smr54]

There are times when you can get away with removing what Fedora considers a dependency after the installation. However, there is always a risk. Some of these are simply legacy dependencies that were never cleaned up, while others might have library X which calls in library Y, so you need package Z which seems completely unrelated to package A that you installed.

[Chilly Willy]

Here is an example of what *I* thought the OP meant & what I've always wondered, myself.

Suppose the PACKAGE is a series of GAMES (about 5 different ones in one package) & you only really want ONE out of the 5. (& only what is necessary to run it) How do you keep it from installing the other 4?

And I'll add, once the package IS installed, how do you get rid of the extra (short of going in & deleting everything manually - if you can find it all) without it taking the whole package?

[forkbomb]

This is an inherent "problem" of binary distributions: they are pretty much one-size-fits-most. It's the price of not having to do much compiling yourself. In order to please as many people as possible with a standard package that is provided in the repositories, programs are often compiled with lots and lots of functionality that in turn requires a bunch of dependencies to provide all those extras.

Options:
1) Deal with the one-size-fits-most stuff you get in the repos, or forcibly remove deps you think you may not need and risk breakage
2) Pick a purpose-built distribution for the task at hand. There are several "rescue CD" or "rescue flash drive" distributions available (e.g. SystemRescueCD).
3) Use a source-based distribution (the only reasonably usable ones are Gentoo and its derivatives)

[Chilly Willy]

Yeah, I pretty much thought it was that way (but was hoping there was a command I didn't yet know about) & I think I even told someone pretty much that affect, not to long ago. (You are pretty much at the mercy of the way the package is designed to do the installing) But I thought I'd get some conformation on it & help out the OP, at the same time.

[bonedome]

Hello
given the 4 games scenario, you can install all 4 then remove the three you don't want without pulling any dependencies with it using

rpm -e --nodeps name-of.rpm

then check it still works

[smr54]

Note bonedome's last line. You do take a risk using rpm -e --nodeps as sometimes a package really will need another package.

[bodhi.zazen]

Originally Posted by jakebpg

How do you install one of many software packs from a package that contains many programs that you do NOT want to install. For instance kdiskfree which is in the kde utilities package. I only want to install software that I know I will need to restore or repair a system back to a bootable system to a minimum. Only the software that I want instead of having to install 10 different executables just for the one I want.

I'm building kind of a rescue flash drive that I need to keep the amount of software to a minimal set. I have already installed F14 and KDE but am having problems trying to install just the software I want without all the other stuff that either fedora or the KDE team decided I need to install along with it which is useless for my needs!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Try LFS , Arch, Slackware, or Gentoo they all tend to have less dependencies per package or you resolve dependencies on your own.

Dependencies in "large" or "major" distros are always a balance between bloat and ease of use.

some distros (Ubuntu) have more dependencies then others

On the other side of the coin, if a package is listed as a dependency there it usually a reason and you should investigate further. Often this involves going to the source code and reading the README (try Slackware ).

[jakebpg]

Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

Here is an example of what *I* thought the OP meant & what I've always wondered, myself.

Suppose the PACKAGE is a series of GAMES (about 5 different ones in one package) & you only really want ONE out of the 5. (& only what is necessary to run it) How do you keep it from installing the other 4?

And I'll add, once the package IS installed, how do you get rid of the extra (short of going in & deleting everything manually - if you can find it all) without it taking the whole package?

You nailed it!

That is exactly what I'm talking about!

[jpollard]

Originally Posted by jakebpg

You nailed it!

That is exactly what I'm talking about!

That is also up to the package maintainer.

[Chilly Willy]

jakebpg


Well, then, I hope you got your answer... (& glad I was at least able to help)

[jakebpg]

Originally Posted by jpollard

The problem that occurs is that the package you want to install may
have dependencies... and without those additional packages, the one
you want will not function.

for instance - kdiskfree appears to be a KDE utility (assuming you are
referring to KDiskFree). As such the program depends on the KDE
environment which has a fairly large number of requirements.

Without these, KDiskFree will not work.

If you are trying for a minimal system, DON'T include a GUI. That
alone requires a HUGE amount of software.

The whole purpose of this is to make something that even a newbee can use without having to ask a thousand questions on how to do it, so YES it does require a GUI!

[bodhi.zazen]

Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

And I'll add, once the package IS installed, how do you get rid of the extra (short of going in & deleting everything manually - if you can find it all) without it taking the whole package?

Rereading your post ...

First you need to understand the difference between various "developers". There are the "upstream" developers and then there are the developers who package and maintain the Fedora rpm. Packaging can be quite complex, and may involve patching the source code.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_t...an_RPM_package

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SRPM_Buildtime_macros

If you wish to remain as compatible as possible with Fedora, you would download the source rpm, extract it, and edit the dependencies or install scripts or source code, depending on what you are wanting. After the edit, make a custom rpm.

Alternately you download the source code and modify it yourself. Read the README, look at ./configure --help for options, and review the source code.

Some distros make the process "easier" , depending on your perspective of ease, to do all this - Gentoo, Arch Linux, Slackware are the big 3 , IMO, but it is possible in any distro.

both emerge (gentoo) and pacman (arch) are awesome tools. Compiling on Slackware is very easy as there are minimal dependencies for most packages, but it is up to you to find and install the dependencies, and the dependencies dependencies .... Nothing like doing that to appreciate tools such as yum

If you *really* want a clean, minimal, custom distro, LFS.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project that provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code.

So the question is, really, how much time do YOU want to spend on this stuff ? Or are you willing to accept the dependencies packages by $DISTRO package maintainers ?

[forkbomb]

Originally Posted by bodhi.zazen

both emerge (gentoo) and pacman (arch) are awesome tools.

Just to clarify (and I'm sure you understand this... just pointing it out for anybody who doesn't): Arch is a binary distribution and Pacman is not a build system (in the sense of Gentoo Portage or FreeBSD's Ports collection). Arch does semi-officially provide a Ports-like build system in the form of the ABS and the AUR, but the core distribution itself is packaged and pushed to users in precompiled packages.

That is to say, in Arch, you still do sometimes run into situations where a single package will pull in lots of dependencies. But that does seem to be less in Arch because of the overall disposition of the distro.

Originally Posted by bodhi.zazen

Compiling on Slackware is very easy as there are minimal dependencies for most packages, but it is up to you to find and install the dependencies, and the dependencies dependencies .... Nothing like doing that to appreciate tools such as yum

Compiling on most binary distributions is a pain in the butt generally, but it has less to do with "dependencies" than with the fact that certain binary distributions don't ship a proper build "toolchain" and/or provide source and headers in separate packages (as with Fedora's separation of foo-devel packages); the separate packaging of source and headers is something that escapes most newbies and is the reason for most threads around here about "how do I compile foo" (second most common is probably "what does 'bash: gcc: command not found' mean?")

Compiling stuff on Slack is no harder or easier than compiling stuff on Fedora once you realize the importance of having requisite foo-devel packages present.

Originally Posted by bodhi.zazen

If you *really* want a clean, minimal, custom distro, LFS.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

LFS is pointless outside of dubious/marginal learning value. Maintaining a source-based distribution without something like portage/emerge or FreeBSD's ports is utterly masochistic. Not to toot the Gentoo horn, but there's nothing that LFS offers that can't be done on a Gentoo install configured with a lightweight profile and judicious use of USE flags. Furthermore, Gentoo is actually maintainable.