Remove Xarchiver package without removing whonix packages?

AnonymousUser · October 12, 2019, 12:12am

I don’t use Xarchiver. It is inadequate for creating password-protected 7-Zip files in Thunar using thunar-archive-plugin. I use and prefer file-roller instead.

However, for some reason when I do apt remove xarchiver, whonix forces me to uninstall some core whonix packages.

I see I can apt-mark hold whonix_dev_package_name, but that’s cumbersome. Is there a better way to do this? Why is Xarchiver forcibly linked to other whonix packages when there’s other alternatives the user may want to use like ark or file-roller? (Or even PeaZip.)

Patrick_mobile · October 12, 2019, 7:47am

Technical limitations. Documented here:

AnonymousUser · October 12, 2019, 8:43am

@Patrick I already saw that page. Don’t think it explains xarchiver though. Why can’t we remove it on its own?

Patrick · October 12, 2019, 9:46am

That page explains is generically for any package which is affected by this. xarchiver is part of a meta package (kicksecure-desktop-applications-xfce). Also not easy to uninstall other applications which such as xchat, keepassxc, vlc and others (dependency of whonix-workstation-packages-recommended-gui).

Please specifically see https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Whonix_Debian_Packages#Technical_Stuff and then follow all links.

Debian packages support only Recommends: or Depends:. There is nothing in the middle. The missing feature is:

Weak-Depends: list of packages that gets installed when using apt --no-install-recommends but any package listed there can be removed without removing the package which referenced the Weak-Depends:

The related forum discussion: