Bug#352267: apt-get --purge remove dbus-1 purges far too much

["Adam D. Barratt" <debian-bts@adam-barratt.org.uk>]

On Fri, 2006-02-10 at 23:33 +0000, Greg Kochanski wrote:
> Steve Langasek wrote:
[...]
> > Well, I *definitely* can't reproduce this.  If I try to purge a package that
> > has reverse-dependencies installed on the system, I get this:
> > 
> > # apt-get --purge remove samba-common
> > Reading package lists... Done
> > Building dependency tree... Done
> > The following packages will be REMOVED:
> >   libpam-smbpass* linpopup* samba* samba-common* smbclient* smbfs* swat* winbind*
> [...][
> > 
> > Which explicitly lists all the packages to be removed.
> > 
> Yes, it says REMOVED, not PURGED.     It did not remove them, it purged
> them.   It did not inform the user what it was going to do.
> 
> A user who actually reads the man page and knows the difference between
> remove and purge would be rather upset after he agrees to the removal
> (in the expectation that the packages can be easily restored),
> and finds that they are actually purged.

A user who reads the man page and doesn't expect this to happen didn't
read it very carefully, IMHO:

     --purge
              Use purge instead of remove for anything that would be
removed.
              An  asterisk  ("*") will be displayed next to packages
which are
              scheduled to be purged. Configuration Item:
APT::Get::Purge.

It specifically states *for* *anything* that would be removed, not just
the package on the command line, and visually indicates that the
packages will be purged; compare the above to the output of "apt-get
remove samba-common".

Regards,

Adam