Re: How to Totally!! nuke X11?
On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 05:24:03PM +0200, Dimitar Vukman wrote:
} On Thu, 24 Aug 2006 09:56:19 -0500
} Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
}
} > That's your problem. aptitude sucks.
}
} I always use something like "aptitude install -t version xxx".
} Aptitude remembers reverse dependencies, hence aptitude purge xxx will
} remove xxx and all it's deps, apt-get won't.
This is the primary benefit I keep hearing about for aptitude over apt-get.
I just don't see it as particularly valuable. Let's talk use cases:
1) I install a package because I want to try it out, decide I don't like
it, and remove it. This entire process generally takes less than an
hour, and almost always takes less than a day. The terminal in which I
did the apt-get install will still be open, and the apt-get run from
installing the package is still in the scrollback. To remove/purge I
just copy and paste one or two of the deeper dependencies on the apt-get
remove command and everything goes away just fine.
2) I have no use for some package *and* it poses a vague potential security
risk (i.e. opens a network port), so I want to remove it. Doing an
apt-get remove (or remove --purge) is sufficient.
3) I have no use for some package and it takes up CPU cycles and memory in
the background. Again, I can just remove or remove --purge, or I can
even just use sysv-rc-conf to prevent it from running at boot and kill
the currently running process.
4) I am actually low on disk space and want to get rid of some unused
packages to free some space. First off, disk space is cheap so this is
moderately unlikely to begin with. Second, apt-get clean is the first
step. Finally, I can use deborphan (or gtkorphan if I'm in a GUI frame
of mind) to get rid of unneeded or unused packages.
That fourth use case is the only one that involves more effort when using
apt-get instead of aptitude. It's also an uncommon case, especially as
compared to the others. I don't consider it worth giving up the simplicity
of apt-get to optimize an uncommon use case. (How uncommon is it? I think
I've gone through it once in the past six years, and that was on a machine
with a 2GB HD.)
--Greg
Reply to: