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Re: Is this really the right thing to do?



>> One problem with auto-deinstallation of support packages is that
>> you may have other packages that also use the same support package.


Seeing how this problem is almost identical to the problem of memory
allocation in a language like C or C++ (ie, memory-leaks vs.
dangling-pointers), perhaps we can solve this one in a similar way. Perhaps
we need some sort of garbage collection system... where dpkg maintains a
list of apps that a support package is supporting. When the list is empty,
the user can be offered the option of removing the packages.

>> You also have support packages that are obviously useless by themselves
>> (such as libraries), but what about the ones that are only 'semi-useless'
>> by themselve.  An example would be a documentation package.


Perhaps we could have a top-level menu item in dselect (up there with
update, install, config...) called, say, "Clean-up". It could look for any
(seemingly) unneeded support packages and let the user individually keep or
jettison each one.

>> I think the best solution would be to be able to mark packages in dselect
>> and dpkg, just like we currently have them marked as 'purge', 'hold',
etc.
>> We would just add a way to mark packages as
>> 'installed-but-not-wanted-on-its-own-merits-so-uninstall-it-when-all-
>> packages-needing-it-are-gone', or IBNWOIOMSUIWAPNIAG for short.
:)


I had always considered the packages to be either "app" or "support".


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