Re: Is there an apt-get install log?

[Jaume Guasch <jaume.guasch@psi.ch>]

Jeremy Nickurak <atrus@rifetech.com> writes:

> There's always deborphan, which looks for packages on which nothing
> depends.
> 
> apititude seems to somehow keep a list of which packages were installed
> because you wanted them, and which packages where installed simply to
> satisfy dependancies, and then removes such packages when the packages 
> they were serving are removed. Personally I think this concept is
> fantastic, and that apt-get should have a similar function.
> 

You also have debfoster. (see apt-cache show debfoster). 

It keeps a database of "wanted" packages, and ask you wether you want to
keep packages that don't depend on anything.

First, you need to create a database of wanted packages (debfoster
-q). Then invoque debfoster after each apt-get or dpkg command. 

Expample:
package foo depends on bar1 bar2 bar3

$ apt-get install foo
$ debfoster
foo is keeping 3 packages installed
  bar1 bar2 bar3
  do you want to keep foo?

Say yes, and that's it. Later, you decide that foo is not that cool

$ apt-get remove --purge foo
$ debfoster
keep bar1?
[Answer no]
keep bar2?
[Answer no]
keep bar3?
[Answer no]

And you get rid of everything related with foo. 

Hope this helps,

Jaume



> On Tue, 2002-08-06 at 13:22, rich wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > Jeff wrote:
> > 
> > >>
> > >>Is there a log anywhere that has a list of packages installed and
> > >>their install dates?
> > >>If not, what is a good way to completely back out of a package and
> > >>all the installed dependencies? 
> > > 
> > > The only way I know of to do this is to use "apt-cache show <package>"
> > > to see what the dependancies are for a package and then list them all
> > > in a purge command string.  That will remove the package and purge all
> > > the config files and directories associated with it.  For example:
> > > 
> > > # apt-get remove --purge package1 package2 package3
> > > 
> > > will purge all three packages and in the right order since package1
> > > depends on package2, and package2 depends on package 3.
> > > 
> > 
> > If "apt-cache show" lists libc as a dependency should I remove it? No.
> > I don't want to delete something that was installed previously for 
> > another purpose. It may be OK to do that on a single user PC but not on 
> > a multi-user server.
> > I think I might wrap "apt-get" in a script that tee's and parses the 
> > output.  Or I can run nightly diffs on "dpkg --list" output to at least 
> >    see what's installed with a daily granularity. Anyone have other ideas?
> > 
> > Rich
> > 
> > 
> > -- 

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