I would advise you not to use such a broad-sweep command, but rather to look at the information for each of those packages individually. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but that’s only because you haven’t been systematically keeping track while removing packages and/or updating.
I see several things in that list that have been dropped from the repositories and/or from the AUR over time, but I also see things that are definitely still maintained and useful.
bc for instance is such a package — it’s a command-line precision calculator, and it’s still being maintained. And indeed, you do not want to remove wayland-protocols, make, automake, autoconf or bison.
Off the top of my head, the following can safely be removed…
The amount of space to be regained is purely subjective.
If one tends to install/uninstall packages frequently; perhaps including packages via the AUR; and if one fails to cleanup along the way; the space to be regained can potentially be quite substantial.
Example;
When a package is installed it may often install dependencies (only needed for that package). Many might uninstall a package while being completely oblivious to the need to also remove those dependencies.
Using:
sudo pacman -R <package-name>
will uninstall the package.
If it is a meta-package, it should also uninstall dependencies; otherwise, the following command tends to cleanup-as-you-go;
You don’t have to remove all the orphans at one go if you don’t have the time to examine each one [I do it in pamac GUI] to ensure you really don’t need it. Just pick and choose some orphans to examine and make your decision on those.
What I do is click on the orphans tab when in “Installed” view of pamac GUI, and then using the sorting filter on the right, sort them by repository. Then scroll all the way to the bottom and if any of the orphans are no longer in any repo, not even the AUR. they are a likely candidate for removal.
I also check on the update/install date for the orphans. If the last update of the package was more than 6 months ago, it’s another likely candidate for removal.
And then if you are a KDE plasma user, since Manjaro is now on Plasma 6, you can check on any orphaned kde packages that start with 'k5…" or something similar to that. These are likely Plasma 5 packages and mostly won’t be needed any more.
I would still check on the details of the orphaned packages you wish to target and this includes any “k5” packages - it’s very easy in pamac-GUI - before removing them.
[ADDED] Just to be safe, if there a a lot of orphans you want to remove, make a system backup first.
is what I would suggest to check what depends on it (or what it might depend on, which might also become unnecessary when it’s removed); I know there is a short-form method of doing this (via grep) but I can’t remember where (on here, by the way) I read it.
Thanks Aragorn! i’ll remove the ones you mentioned and the ones I need to keep i’ll mark as explicitly installed, is that correct?
Eh… last time I tried this… My monitor was standing on its head, software wise I mean… or was I the one upside down? I can’t remember but it didn’t end well…
You have a point… but I dunno I’d just feel better if they weren’t there… (without destroying my system in the process ofc)
I think I know what would happen if it was a normal run… big badda boom! (Fifth Element reference )
Hi Thunder! Aye, I think i’ll try this one… but there’s so many packages to uninstall it would take forever like this… Maybe I can mark the ones I want to keep as explicit and then pacman -Qdtq | pacman -Rns after? or is that still a bad idea?
This sounds like a not too bad plan, maybe i’ll give it a try… but I’m still unsure of what programs are safe to remove and what will lead to an Alice in Wonderland-esque experience if I remove them…
Oh interesting… You are strong with the Linux Fu kind sir. I will try and use this for the benefit of Linux kind… by Linux kind I mean mostly myself for the time being…
Aha! What we have here is an example of efficiency ladies and gentlemen! The maximum output for the minimum number of keystrokes… well, at least reduced number of keystrokes… obviously one could use the mouse, select the above text and then middle click in terminal… but I digress. Thanks!
Thank you to everyone who replied, I appreciate it! I don’t know who to give the “solved” check mark to since all your answers are valid and valuable to me. So I gave out likes to everyone instead ( < looks like this one ) and I see a few familiar names, some of whom have helped me before. Cheers guys!
Using -Rns will typically uninstall the package(s) you intended to remove along with dependencies and additional cruft that might have otherwise been left behind (to become orphans) by simply using -R.
As you are using Plasma, one more orphaned package that you can remove is wayland-protocols, as Plasma only needs the plasma-wayland-protocols package. I haven’t had wayland-protocols on my trouble-free Plasma system since last year:
I think the installing & removal several times were either me initially thinking it was required & later removing it, or it could have been drawn in as a build dependency of an AUR package & later removed when I cleaned up my orphans.
pamac is really good a the orphan stuff - and it would likely be the same result…
I can’t remember but it didn’t end well… 
(Fifth Element reference 
)
Aye, I think i’ll try this one… but there’s so many packages to uninstall it would take forever like this… 
Maybe I can mark the ones I want to keep as explicit and then 
< looks like this one 
) and I see a few familiar names, some of whom have helped me before. Cheers guys!