On 20140402_180526, Jeff Bai wrote: > Hi, > > I am not exactly using Debian but building another distribution with > DPKG and APT as basic package management suite. But we just found that, > when doing apt-get autoremove, there was not a warning or extra notice for > removing packages which sometimes leads to a broken system... > > Well, I would really want to hear what you guys think... > > Jeff Bai from AOSC
Autoremove is an incomplete solution to a difficult problem, IMHO. Think of dependencies among packages as a directed graph of links(dependency) between nodes(packages). The data about this graph is contained in the dependent packages in lists of callouts of required services. In general, the graph is not rooted and not even acyclic. It's basically difficult to grasp, much less solve. The Debian approach works in the Debian environment, IMHO. But also, IMHO, there are surely environments in which it would not work well at all. Debian is open for inspection. You can learn about Debian's solution by administering a Debian installation, which you probably have. Try to break it by doing "stupid" things. See how it responds. I recommend using Aptitude for this investigation because it gives you immediate feedback at each step. The system will ask questions that you had not anticipated having to answer. I have no doubt you will quickly grasp what you need to do to keep a system running across changes in configuration. If this is something that you think your intended audience of users can handle, adopt it, and give them Aptitude, and the other user-friendly front ends. If not, make plans for an alternative approach to system configuration. HTH -- Paul E Condon pecon...@mesanetworks.net -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140403185151.ga24...@pec.lan.gnu
