Xz uninstall problem

raijin7 · 2024-03-30 15:13:32

After hearing about the xz backdoor, I tried to uninstall it using

 sudo pacman -Rsnu xz

However the xz executable persists in /bin. Repeating the aforementioned command outputs: warning: removing xz from target list. there is nothing to do. Although nothing really changes. Then I did attempt to delete the executable manually and reinstall the 5.6.1-2 version. But writing in terminal:

xz -V

Output: xz (XZ Utils)5.6.1 is that ok? I don't have knowledge about security, so pacman not working as I expect makes me uncomfortable. To make things even more confusing to me xzcat, xzdiff, lzma seems related to xz. What should I do to properly delete xz? Is it better to reinstall arch?

Lone_Wolf · 2024-03-30 15:17:27

xz is needed by many packages in archlinux, it can't be removed without issues.

run pacman -Qi xz . If it reports 5.6.1-2 as version you're fine.

Read https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=294363 for more details.

Scimmia · 2024-03-30 15:30:29

raijin7 wrote:

pacman not working as I expect makes me uncomfortable.

pacman is doing the right thing, it's your expectations that are the problem. You really expect pacman to remove something that will make your system completely unbootable and pacman inoperable without some extra safeguards?

Trilby · 2024-03-30 15:34:06

So you heard about the problem, but rather than following the advice for the solution, you tried your own whacky approach. That is a habit you should break today.

But the reason pacman didn't remove it should be quite clear if you read the pacman man page for the flags you used (hint, what is the -u flag for in the REMOVE section).

Arch Linux

#1 2024-03-30 15:13:32

Xz uninstall problem

#2 2024-03-30 15:17:27

Re: Xz uninstall problem

#3 2024-03-30 15:30:29

Re: Xz uninstall problem

#4 2024-03-30 15:34:06

Re: Xz uninstall problem

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