I noticed recently that wayland-protocols become orphan.
After much searching still cannot be sure if it is secure to remove it.
Any advice would be appreciated.
thanks
A quick look into dependencies will reveal that wayland-protocols is required by gst-plugins-bad-libs that is required by gtk4. Where did you notice that orphan?
You can also take a look at the project page wayland / wayland-protocols · GitLab
A package might become orphan if becomes unnecessary, hence will be removed from repository, or becomes deprecated, but as stated in the gitlab
So, what replaces it?
Thanks @bogdancovaciu for your reply
I check once in a wile for orphans running the comand:
pamac list -o
there I got it in the list.
I checked also the “Required by” list at https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/wayland-protocols/ but nothing reminds me of something I uninstalled recently.
1 Like
@bogdancovaciu I similarly removed wayland-protocols when it was orphaned from my KDE Wayland laptop a long time ago, and no ill effects that I can tell.
I just checked in Pamac and don’t see the dependencies that you list. And I do have qtk4 installed. It seems that the dependency is provided by wayland itself now, but I’m not sure how to confirm that using Pamac or Pacman.
And I don’t have plasma-wayland-protocols installed either. Would either package add or extend wayland functionality or be useful in any way?
You can check with:
pamac info wayland-protocols
see on my end i get this:
Name : wayland-protocols
Version : 1.31-1
Description : Specifications of extended Wayland protocols
URL : https://wayland.freedesktop.org/
Licenses : MIT
Repository : extra
Installed Size : 509,4 kB
Groups : --
Depends On : --
Optional Dependencies : --
Required By : gst-plugins-bad-libs
Optional For : --
Provides : --
Replaces : --
Conflicts With : --
Packager : SĂ©bastien Luttringer <seblu@seblu.net>
Build Date : Vi 02 dec 2022 09:37:41 +0200
Install Date : Du 04 dec 2022 09:23:34 +0200
Install Reason : Installed as a dependency for another package
Validated By : Signature
Backup files : --
See the Requiref by so then i check:
pamac info gst-plugins-bad-libs
And i get:
Name : gst-plugins-bad-libs
Version : 1.22.1-2
Description : Multimedia graph framework - bad
URL : https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/
Licenses : LGPL
Repository : extra
Installed Size : 10,8 MB
Groups : --
Depends On : gst-plugins-base-libs=1.22.1 orc libdrm libx11 libgudev libusb libxkbcommon-x11 libva libnice vulkan-icd-loader wayland wayland-protocols
Optional Dependencies : --
Required By : gst-plugins-bad gtk4 nvidia-vaapi-driver-git webkit2gtk webkit2gtk-4.1
Optional For : --
Provides : --
Replaces : --
Conflicts With : --
Packager : Antonio Rojas <arojas@archlinux.org>
Build Date : Mi 08 mar 2023 21:03:36 +0200
Install Date : Vi 10 mar 2023 09:18:03 +0200
Install Reason : Installed as a dependency for another package
Validated By : Signature
Backup files : --
And again i check the Required by and i can conclude if i want that or not, remove it is is not relevant for my install … etc.
Also i prefer to “investigate” this way because i can know if was installed or not as as a dependency for another package.
Most of the time, nothing is installed by mistake on my end.
Hmmm… I don’t have the any Required By:
Name : wayland-protocols
Version : 1.31-1
Description : Specifications of extended Wayland protocols
URL : https://wayland.freedesktop.org/
Licenses : MIT
Repository : extra
Installed Size : 509.4 kB
Groups : --
Depends On : --
Optional Dependencies : --
Provides : --
Replaces : --
Conflicts With : --
Packager : SĂ©bastien Luttringer <seblu@seblu.net>
Build Date : Fri 02 Dec 2022 02:37:41 AM EST
Validated By : MD5 Sum SHA-256 Sum Signature
but I do here:
Name : gst-plugins-bad-libs
Version : 1.22.0-3
Description : Multimedia graph framework - bad
URL : https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/
Licenses : LGPL
Repository : extra
Installed Size : 10.8 MB
Groups : --
Depends On : gst-plugins-base-libs=1.22.0 orc libdrm libx11 libgudev libusb libxkbcommon-x11 libva libnice vulkan-icd-loader wayland
Optional Dependencies : --
Required By : gst-plugins-bad gtk4
Optional For : --
Provides : --
Replaces : --
Conflicts With : --
Packager : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <heftig@archlinux.org>
Build Date : Sun 29 Jan 2023 06:32:22 AM EST
Install Date : Fri 03 Feb 2023 07:06:29 PM EST
Install Reason : Installed as a dependency for another package
Validated By : Signature
Backup files : --
1 Like
This is an older version … does your package database need refreshing?
Packages shows
stable 1.22.0-3
testing 1.22.1-2
unstable 1.22.1-2
So, when stable branch gets the new version, wayland-protocols will no longer be orphaned, if gst-plugins-bad-libs is installed?
2 Likes
Running pactree to find the top packages depending on gst-plugins-bad-libs, so I can now decide if keep wayland-protocols or not.
In my case, they are cheese and flatpak. I do not use any of those so I can even uninstall them.
Thanks @bogdancovaciu @CarlLaFong @mishmosh for you help 
pactree -r gst-plugins-bad-libs
gst-plugins-bad-libs
├─gst-plugins-bad
│ ├─cheese
│ └─gnome-video-effects
│ └─cheese
├─gtk4
│ ├─gnome-desktop-4
│ │ └─xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
│ │ └─xdg-desktop-portal
│ │ └─flatpak
│ └─libadwaita
│ └─xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
└─libcheese
└─cheese
1 Like
Good eye regarding the version number. I’m really curious now when the next snap to Stable occurs if wayland-protocols will be installed as a required dependency. Interesting stuff!