Re: Solutions for the Apache upgrade hell

[Jeff Epler <jepler@unpythonic.net>]

On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 09:52:12AM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> I use apt dist-upgrade normally and then, periodically, run:
> 
>     dpkg --get-selections | grep deinstall | awk '{ print $1 }' \
>         | xargs dpkg --purge
> 
> This is obviously somewhat unsafe.  It would be neat to have a tool that
> would do this properly without involving dodgy greps that might match
> package names and other obvious issues.

Slightly better might be
    dpkg --get-selections | awk '{if ($2 == "deinstall") { print $1 } }'
though I see there's a way to say this in aptitude to directly say what
you want.

Jeff