Re: Automatic package removal handling for apt

[Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2004 at 12:16:39PM +0200, Michael Hofmann wrote:

> I implemented a solution for testing in apt, which goes as follows:
> 
> dpkg needs to be patched to provide a additional field: Automatic-Remove. It can contain the values:
> - "Manual" - this field is the default and is not written to /var/lib/dpkg/status, this is like before, manual handling
> - "Required" - get uninstalled if the package is not required anymore, that means there are no more depends, but maybe suggests and recommends
> - "Recommended" - get uninstalled if the package is not required or recommended anymore, but maybe suggests
> - "Suggested" - get uninstalled if the package is not required, recommended and suggested anymore

I think the consensus in the past has been that having package selection
information (which is what this is) in the dpkg status file is a bug, and we
shouldn't encourage it.

This information should probably be confined to the apt layer.

I haven't had a chance to review your patches yet...

-- 
 - mdz