Re: Suggestion for change to debian package format
Has a more primitive method been considered (i.e., an option to dpkg
which tries to purge or remove stuff a package depends on)?
e.g., dpkg --remove|--purge [--excise] <package>
--
On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Mitch Blevins wrote:
> Mark Phillips wrote:
> > [snip nice suggestion]
>
> This has already been discussed and is being addressed in apt.
> Here's how it will work (if I understand correctly):
>
> Apt will keep a boolean flag called 'Auto' for each package installed
> on your system. 'Auto' is short for 'Automatically uninstall this
> package when it is not required anymore because of a dependency'.
>
> So, when you install package foo, and apt automatically installs
> libfoo1 and libfoo2 because they are required by foo, then they will
> be marked with the 'Auto' flag. Later, if you deinstall foo, then apt
> will also deinstall libfoo1 and libfoo2, provided they are no longer
> needed by any other packages.
>
> This also allows you to easily have groups of packages. For example,
> you can have a "Gnome" package that depends on all the various libraries
> and packages required by gnome. Later, if you decide the gnome sucks,
> you can just uninstall the "Gnome" meta-package and all the other unused
> libs and packages will go away as well.
>
> Please note that both the automatic marking of packages as 'Auto' and
> the automatic removal of 'Auto' packages will be a configurable option
> in apt, so you won't be stuck with this behavior. Also, you will be
> able to toggle the 'Auto' flag directly from any of the apt front-ends.
>
> Is that what you were looking for?
>
> -Mitch
>
>
> --
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>
later,
Bruce
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