Re: New approach to obsolete packages
In foo.debian-devel, you wrote:
> We've had a number of cases now where it would be convenient to have a
> package that removes itself after successful installation. In some
> cases we actually built one (xbase, miscutils), with others we found
> another solution (modutils), and with some we don't have a solution
> yet (xfnt*).
>
> I think a general solution might be to add a single new dpkg flag:
>
> Self-Destruct: Yes
>
> This tells dpkg to automatically remove the package if nothing else
> depends on it.
> ...
Isn't this the same functionality provided by the propposed 'Auto'
flag in Deity? From Section 5.2 of
http://www.debian.org/~wakkerma/apt-design2.1.txt
5.2 Automatically installed packages
Occasionaly if the user selects a package other packages also have to be
installed to satisfy dependencies. Apt will remember which packages where
not manually selected but only installed to satisfy the dependency of
another package with the help of the `Auto' flag. This flag indicates that
a package has been selected automatically. Later when Apt is doing a
complete run or only removing packages it can detect which of these
automatically installed packages are no longer needed and remove them. This
automatic removal can be toggled on or off. The flag can also be toggled
manually, to prevent libraries which are used by unpackaged programs
from being removed.
The advantage of your proposed Self-Destruct field over the Auto flag is:
It takes the decision out of the hands of the end-user.
The disadvantage of the Self-Destruct field is:
It takes the decision out of the hands of the end-user.
Are there any other pros/cons of the two approaches?
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