Re: keep users alert to packages deleted from debian

[Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>]

On Fri, Apr 02, 2004 at 10:28:44PM -0800, Brian Nelson wrote:
> Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org> writes:
> 
> > On Fri, Apr 02, 2004 at 07:35:49PM +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> >> On Fri, Apr 02, 2004 at 08:21:11PM +0200, Peter Palfrader wrote:
> >> > On Fri, 02 Apr 2004, Dan Jacobson wrote:
> >> > > Anyway, it seems no tool keeps users alert that some of their
> >> > > packages are "no longer".  Perhaps it should appear when one does
> >> > > dist-upgrades, or maybe a deb orphan-like tool that one could run
> >> > > from crontab.
> >> > 
> >> > You mean like dselect?
> >> 
> >> Also aptitude. Don't use apt-get for serious administration; 'apt-get
> >> install' is useful, but for the rest you should use a real front-end.
> >> 
> >> -- 
> >> Colin Watson                                  [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
> >
> > Let me add this to my reference starting paragraph.
> >
> > <chapt id="package">Debian package management
> >
> > <p>
> > Don't use <prgn>apt-get</prgn> for serious administration;
> > <tt>apt-get install</tt> is useful, but for the rest you should use
> > real front-ends such as <prgn>dselect</prgn> and <prgn>aptitude</prgn>.

I (or Thomas) actually toned down this quite a bit.

   apt-get is a basic command-line front end to APT. aptitude and synaptic
   are, respectively, text mode and GUI front ends which provide more
   advanced features. aptitude, for example, remembers which packages you
   deliberately installed and which packages were pulled in through
   dependencies; the latter packages are automatically de-installed by
   aptitude when they are no longer needed by any deliberately installed
   packages.

> I would venture to say that only 'apt-get source' is useful.  'apt-get
> install' doesn't offer anything 'aptitude install' offers.  In fact, if
> you use aptitude, you should never use 'apt-get install' since you lose
> the benefits of aptitude tracking automatic dependencies.
> 
> The only times I've used 'apt-get install' in the past 1.5 years or so
> are on newly installed systems, and then it's only to do 'apt-get
> install aptitude'.  ;)

Very good point.  I expanded aptitude section and pointed out this very
important fact.  

Once you start using <prgn>aptitude</prgn>, it is depreciated to use
<prgn>apt-get</prgn> for installing packages since you lose the
benefits of <prgn>aptitude</prgn> tracking automatic dependencies.

Thanks.