Re: Return a Debian system to a pristine state
Victor Sudakov wrote:
> A production system, especially a desktop system, tends to accumulate
> unnecessary packages. Users install software for testing, then forget
> about it, or it falls into disuse...
>
> In FreeBSD, you can always run "pkg delete -a" and return to the
> post-install state (well, almost). This command will remove all the
> third-party packages added to the base system after installation
> (modified files under /usr/local/ will remain).
>
> What's the procedure for Debian?
There is no pristine state for Debian. Choices made during
installation affect what the first boot experience looks like.
apt remove will uninstall a package.
apt purge will uninstall a package and try to remove any
configuration it has left behind.
dpkg -S will tell you what package a file belongs
to.
apt-cache rdepends will tell you what other packages depend on
an installed package.
/var/lib/apt/lists/* has package information; if you grep for
Priority: required you will find packages that *must* be
installed. The ranking is:
required > important > standard > optional > extra
-dsr-
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