Ttyjfyk

When I try to remove some packages, I get this error:

╰─ sudo pacman -R avahi 
[sudo] password for laith: 
checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: geoclue: removing avahi breaks dependency 'avahi'
:: gvfs: removing avahi breaks dependency 'avahi'
:: libcups: removing avahi breaks dependency 'avahi'
:: libdmapsharing: removing avahi breaks dependency 'avahi'

This look erroneous to me- Pacman doesn't want to break a dependency of the package I want to remove. Am I misunderstanding something here, or is there a way to tell pacman this is ok?

A package in Arch Linux commonly declares a dependency on other packages because of one or more features that are needed by a package and provided by another, such as shared objects (files whose names are suffixed by .so). This is a concept of a dependency tree, which is common to many other GNU/Linux distributions.

The error you are experiencing does not denote a cyclic dependency. pacman output is actually saying that you are trying to remove a feature that four packages depend on. For example, the message gvfs: removing avahi breaks dependency 'avahi' means that:

• The avahi package provides the avahi feature.


• The gvfs packages depends on the avahi feature. Features provided by gvfs will not work well without it.


• You tried to remove avahi package, which is currently the only package that provides the avahi feature.


• In order to avoid a dependency tree break, pacman prevented you from removing avahi package.

Usually, package names match feature names, however there are some exceptions. For example, beanshell package depends on java-runtime feature, which is provided by jre8-openjdk, jre10-openjdk and several other packages.

When pacman identifies a potential dependency tree break, you are required to tell the package manager how to deal with it. I see the following options:

• Tell pacman to remove the avahi package and all packages which depends on features being removed by specifying the --cascade argument:

 $ sudo pacman -R --cascade avahi

• Tell pacman to ignore the dependency tree at all by specifying the --nodeps argument twice:

 $ sudo pacman -R --nodeps --nodeps avahi

References:

• pacman (8)


• pacman - ArchWiki