On Sun, 23 Nov 2014 15:11:56 -0700 Bob Proulx sent:
> Charlie wrote:
> > In a different email, under the heading: Re: Installing an
> > Alternative Init? Andrei posted this in part:
> >
> > [quote] A package not properly cleaning after itself on purge is
> > generally considered a bug in Debian, severity depending on the
> > impact, of course. [end quote]
> >
> > I suppose this is literal, just that package?
>
> Yes. Just that package. Not the package dependencies. Because there
> is the APT "autoremove" functionality for that purpose.
>
> > Because I have install a package which also pulled in some
> > dependencies.
> >
> > Upon purging it, because it didn't suit the purpose of what I
> > wanted to do. It purged itself, but left the dependencies on the
> > system.
>
> That is expected. Because when you purged that package the tool
> doesn't know if you were going to install an alternative tool or a
> different version of that tool or something different. It shouldn't
> remove the dependencies recursively. Again there are other tools for
> doing recursive removals. See "orphaner" in the 'deborphan' package
> for example. Although I think "apt-get autoremove --purge" is the
> main example these days.
>
> > I can only suppose this is what is supposed to happen? I
> > backtracked and found them, purging each in turn.
> >
> > I also suppose this is what's supposed to happen?
> >
> > Or is there some command using apt-get that allows me to purge a
> > package and the dependencies it pulled in as well?
>
> That or run this:
>
> apt-get autoremove --purge
>
> The above is my normal course of action.
>
> > Just curious and trying to learn a bit more.
>
> Read the man page for apt-mark for more information about how this
> works. That command is relatively new in Wheezy. Previously there
> was some of the functionality (hold/install) directly in dpkg. That
> plus whether a package was installed manually or installed as a
> dependency has had an interface to that information made available
> through the apt-mark command. You can see the list of packages
> automatically installed with "apt-mark showauto". You can directly
> manipulate the state using that command too.
>
> The idea is that if the package that pulled in packages is removed
> then you can run apt-get autoremove to remove the dependencies too.
> It is up to you to know that if you want them purged you can add the
> --purge option. I have good backups plus I use etckeeper so I am
> confident of simply purging /etc files and therefore mostly purge
> packages. That avoids a lot of interaction bugs such as some of the
> well known problems with PHP having config to load libraries that have
> been removed. If it were purged then the config would have been
> removed too and no problem would have been noticed. That is just one
> example. Therefore it is good to keep the system clean of "rc" state
> things. The deborphan command can help there too.
>
> dpkg -l | grep ^rc
>
> On my Sid system it is this daily routine:
>
> apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade -d -y # in /etc/cron.daily
> apt-get upgrade
> apt-get dist-upgrade
> apt-get autoremove --purge
> apt-get clean
> reportbug packagefoo
>
> At the dist-upgrade and autoremove steps I carefully inspect the list
> and say No and adjust things with "hold" as needed. After upgrade and
> reportbug it is often necessary to downgrade to the previous version
> still in Testing.
>
> apt-cache policy packagefoo
> apt-get install packagefoo=1.2.3-4
>
> Bob
Thank you Reco, Bob for your comprehensive answer, and Songbird. Now I
understand more fully what is happening and what is required.
Charlie
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