To my knowledge it’s not used at all unless you install something that would need it.
You could confirm that by checking the running processes.
While it might not brick your system, I’d not recommend deleting single files that are part of a package. It’s generally bad practice.
I cannot admit that I’m trying to catch what are you about (if using PureOS GNOME) but still this might help you further:
Otherwise, if mentioned package deleted (apt somehow), you should be able to use Recovery Environment with Ethernet connection and go back with: sudo apt install xwayland.
Otherwise, if mentioned package deleted ( apt somehow), you should be able to use Recovery Environment with Ethernet connection and go back with: sudo apt install xwayland .
Thanks, but I just asked about deletion as a thought-provoker, since I presume
deletion would cause whatever might be dependent on Xwayland to fail,
and thereby show itself, and thereby answer my question
The following packages will be REMOVED: gdm3* gnome* gnome-core* gnome-session* gnome-session-bin* gnome-shell-extensions* task-gnome-desktop* xwayland*
So if you can live without gdm3 package (to start with) …
$ cat ~/bin/pidparents
#!/usr/bin/bash
# ~/bin/pidparents
pid=${1:-$$} #this process if no pid specified as $1
while [ $(($pid)) -gt 0 ]; do
ps h -p $pid -o comm,tt,pid,stat,args
pid=$(ps -q $pid -o ppid=)
done