libxml/GNOME dependency MADNESS cleanup: nfsref(8) removal

libxml/GNOME dependency MADNESS cleanup: nfsref(8) removal

[Mark Liam Brown]

Greetings!

I am going to post a patch series to remove the nfsref(8) utility.

So far the "utility" has only created more harm (namely, dragging in
GNOME(!!!!!) libxml and cohorts dependencies, and related dependency
breakage, which in itself is INTOLERABLE; and breaking NFS root
support); and only obscure "benefits" (NFS referrals, which no one
uses).

Following that will be a patch series for Kconfig to make NFS referral
support optional, and then mark them as depreciated.

Mark
-- 
IT Infrastructure Consultant
Windows, Linux

Re: libxml/GNOME dependency MADNESS cleanup: nfsref(8) removal

[Chuck Lever]

On 5/22/25 11:58 AM, Mark Liam Brown wrote:
> Greetings!
> 
> I am going to post a patch series to remove the nfsref(8) utility.
> 
> So far the "utility" has only created more harm (namely, dragging in
> GNOME(!!!!!) libxml and cohorts dependencies, and related dependency
> breakage, which in itself is INTOLERABLE; and breaking NFS root
> support); and only obscure "benefits" (NFS referrals, which no one
> uses).
> 
> Following that will be a patch series for Kconfig to make NFS referral
> support optional, and then mark them as depreciated.
> 
> Mark

NACK.

-- 
Chuck Lever

Re: libxml/GNOME dependency MADNESS cleanup: nfsref(8) removal

[Jeff Layton]

On Thu, 2025-05-22 at 17:58 +0200, Mark Liam Brown wrote:
> Greetings!
> 
> I am going to post a patch series to remove the nfsref(8) utility.
> 
> So far the "utility" has only created more harm (namely, dragging in
> GNOME(!!!!!) libxml and cohorts dependencies, and related dependency
> breakage, which in itself is INTOLERABLE; and breaking NFS root
> support); and only obscure "benefits" (NFS referrals, which no one
> uses).
> 
> Following that will be a patch series for Kconfig to make NFS referral
> support optional, and then mark them as depreciated.
> 

This really sounds more like a packaging issue. We don't have this
problem on Fedora, for instance:

jlayton@synchrony:~/git/linux$ rpm -q --requires libxml2
libc.so.6()(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.14)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.15)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.28)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.2)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.32)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.33)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.34)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.38)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.7)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_ABI_DT_RELR)(64bit)
liblzma.so.5()(64bit)
liblzma.so.5(XZ_5.0)(64bit)
libm.so.6()(64bit)
libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.29)(64bit)
libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.38)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2()(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.4.30)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.5.0)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.5.2)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.5.6)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.5.7)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.5.8)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.6.0)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.6.18)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.6.20)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.6.21)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.6.3)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.6.8)(64bit)
libxml2.so.2(LIBXML2_2.9.0)(64bit)
libz.so.1()(64bit)
libz.so.1(ZLIB_1.2.2.3)(64bit)
libz.so.1(ZLIB_1.2.3.3)(64bit)
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(FileDigests) <= 4.6.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadIsZstd) <= 5.4.18-1
rtld(GNU_HASH)

...no GNOME libs in there. Maybe you could provide some technical
details so we can help you?
-- 
Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>