remove packages because of Replace tag
hello,
there's a problem with packages being removed by newly installed
packages that provide them. since the replaced package is not purged but
only removed, it still exists in the dpkg db, and config-files for
example are not removed.
at this point it's not possible to purge the obsolete package anymore
since it mostly will remove config-files that are also provided by the
newly installed replacement package.
one example is fetchmail, when ssl got into main and this way,
fetchmail-ssl package from non-us got obsolete and replaced by a
fetchmail meta package with ssl support in main.
i had fetchmail-ssl and fetchmail-common marked as removed in the
dpkg db ('dpkg -l' output) but wasn't able to purge them since it would
cause a /etc/default/fetchmail remove, which is essential for fetchmail
package, even after upgrade.
so i had to purge all three package (fetchmail, fetchmail-ssl,
fetchmail-common) and afterwards reinstall fetchmail to get rid of these
two obsolte packages on my system and in dpkgs db.
any suggestions about how to fix this for the whole debian system? maybe
purging, not removing packages that are replaced, and asking for
removing config files (not) needed by replacement package?
bye
jonas
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