Bug#218861: apt: apt-get should warn about removing required packages
Package: apt
Version: 0.5.14
Severity: wishlist
dilinger@spiral:~$ apt-cache show procps | grep Priority
Priority: required
dilinger@spiral:~$ sudo apt-get remove procps
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
keychain ppp pppconfig pppoe pppoeconf procps
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 6 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 1885kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
According to policy (section 2.5), required packages are:
Packages which are necessary for the proper functioning of the
system. You must not remove these packages or your system may become
totally broken and you may not even be able to use dpkg to put
things back. Systems with only the required packages are probably
unusable, but they do have enough functionality to allow the
sysadmin to boot and install more software.
Given the description, I'm of the opinion that apt should warn about
removal of required packages. This could be done similar to the way
removal of essential packages are handled:
dilinger@spiral:~$ sudo apt-get remove apt
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
apt apt-utils base-config gnome gnome-apt
WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed
This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
apt
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 5 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 4366kB disk space will be freed.
You are about to do something potentially harmful
To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'
?]
-- Package-specific info:
-- apt-config dump --
APT "";
APT::Architecture "i386";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::userstatus "status.user";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";
-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --
-- /etc/apt/sources.list --
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian ../project/experimental main
deb http://marillat.free.fr/ unstable main
deb http://sloth.voxel.net/~dilinger/lvm2 ./
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://mentors.debian.net/debian unstable main
deb http://martianrock.com/debian binary/
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux spiral.internal 2.6.0-test9 #1 Sun Oct 26 14:27:41 EST 2003 i686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C
Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-9 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii libgcc1 1:3.3.2-2 GCC support library
ii libstdc++5 1:3.3.2-2 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
-- no debconf information
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