Re: actively notifying users of removed packages

[Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl>]

Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> On 11/03/08 at 05:23 -0700, Karl Chen wrote:
> To get the list of packages that are installed, but are no longer part
> of the archive, I use
>    apt-show-versions |grep 'No available version in archive'

Or use the aptitude frontend for package management which will show such
packages under the header "Obsolete and Locally Created Packages".

I'd suggest to file wishlist bugreports against any package management
frontend (not including apt) that does not in some way mark packages that
are no longer available in the archive (or rather, in the sources defined in
the sources list).

One problem of course would be if a user has old (as in: belonging to a
previous release) CD images listed in his sources.list. In that case the
packages will probably still just show as "Installed Packages" in aptitude.

Cheers,
FJP