Concern about using pkg_delete -r

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith]

Josh Rickmar wrote:
> I'm hoping that this list covers port tools as well as the usual
> discussions about the actual ports.  If not, please CC this to the proper
> list.
> 
> I want to use pkg_delete to remove an installed port, but also want to
> remove its orphaned dependencies along with it.  After looking at the
> pkg_delete(1) man page, the -r flag seems to be the option to use for this
> job.  My concern, though, is about the wording:
> 
>> In addition to specified packages, delete all
>> packages that depend on those packages as well.
> 
> Does this mean that if I pkg_delete -r pkgA, than pkgB (a dependency) will
> be removed with it, even though it is dependency of pkgC?  Or is
> pkg_delete (or pkg_deinstall) smart enough to understand this dependency
> and keep pkgB installed?
> 
> If in this scenario pkgB would be deleted, should an extra warning be
> added to the man page so that users know that using this flag could
> potentially break their other ports?

I think you have the dependency relationship the wrong way around.

If you do "pkg_delete -r pkgA", and pkgA is a dependency of pkgB (not 
the other way around as you have it), then pkgB will be deleted.