On Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 10:45:01AM -0700, Nikolaus Rath wrote: > The only think it doesn't yet do is that if > > - a is automatically installed > - b is automatically installed > - c is manually installed and depends on a|b > > Either a or b can be removed. But I don't think apt* handled that either.
This example makes it quite obvious that your requirements are "keep a minimal set of packages installed" while the requirement of libapt's autoremove is "suggest only packages for removal which are completely safe to remove". An algorithm can't reasonably decide if C is using A or B (or both) to provide one of its features (the one which is the reason for the depends, so that must be a pretty important feature as C is so useless without it that it is better removed). Even if there is no configuration needed to use A or B, the usage experience of iceweasel and w3m might be different, even if they are both www-browser's. Of course, a technically adapt user can decide which one is really used/needed by C and/or revise his decision mistake later on by reinstalling a package, but this is a maintenance cost – and a cost libapt doesn't want to nor can force upon all its users. Good thing that C isn't depending on 'apt | debfoster' for their ability to remove unused dependencies as even if they have the same task, they have totally different presets and target audiences… Best regards David Kalnischkies
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