David Kalnischkies writes ("Re: apt cron autoclean not enabled by default"):
> Now that you are in the habit of switching tools (SCNR), try "apt"
> instead of "apt-get" which defaults to deleting .deb files after it has
> used them for installation.Heh. > On Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 03:20:04PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote: > > I realise we've been arguing for years about turning on _updates_ by > > default, but I hadn't realised that we doubted whether people would > > want to delete decades-old .deb files... > > People are different, so, much like you will find people complaining > about automatic upgrades you will also find people complaining about you > having deleted files they wanted to share with other machines via > sneaker nets, needed for that downgrade to unbreak their system, want to > hold a bit longer on to the files they have paid a heavy fee/time for > while downloading via mobile/third-internet-world countries or just like > to run their private partial copy of snapshot.debian.org. These might be good reasons for not changing the behaviour of existing installations. I don't see the reason for the default for new installations being to keep all .debs forever. > I guess we (= Debian) will invent something after automatic upgrades are > done as there is then a "need" for it (assuming those tools don't delete > already, which I am not sure), much like we will eventually figure out > how to phase out old kernels (at the moment they are stuck waiting for > an autoremove to be run, but that can't really be run without user > confirmation). Uh. OK. > btw: I don't want to be sounding like "that guy", but reading the > release notes helps preventing "decades-old" as that includes the > suggestion to run 'clean' before the upgrade and Debian releases a > few times within a decade… (heck, apt hasn't reached the "decades" > milestone yet… so technically… but just a few more months). Hah. Thanks for your attention. Ian.
