fix the fail2ban issues and other things

utils.sh

@@ -10,13 +10,36 @@ is_group_installed() {
   pacman -Qg "$1" &> /dev/null
 }
 
+# Packages and Flatpaks you don't want, one name per line (# starts a comment).
+# install_packages and install-flatpaks.sh leave them out, so update doesn't
+# put back what you've removed.
+SKIP_PACKAGES="$HOME/.config/coredesktop/skip-packages"
+
+# Print each argument that isn't in SKIP_PACKAGES, one per line
+without_skipped() {
+  local -A skip=()
+  local name
+  if [ -f "$SKIP_PACKAGES" ]; then
+    while read -r name _; do
+      [[ -n "$name" && "$name" != \#* ]] && skip["$name"]=1
+    done < "$SKIP_PACKAGES"
+  fi
+  for name in "$@"; do
+    [ -n "${skip[$name]}" ] || echo "$name"
+  done
+}
+
 # Function to install packages if not already installed
 install_packages() {
-  local packages=("$@")
+  local packages=()
   local to_install=()
 
   local as_deps=()
 
+  mapfile -t packages < <(without_skipped "$@")
+  # pacman -Qdq with no names would list every dependency on the system
+  [ ${#packages[@]} -ne 0 ] || return 0
+
   for pkg in "${packages[@]}"; do
     if ! is_installed "$pkg" && ! is_group_installed "$pkg"; then
       to_install+=("$pkg")