On 2020-05-28 at 08:51, Greg Wooledge wrote: > There is simply no reasonable way to define what set of packages > would constitute a "pristine system" in Debian. The phrase has no > meaning.
Yes, there is: "The set of packages which was present immediately after completion of the initial installation process." This will vary between computers, and indeed may vary between successive installs on the same computer, depending on the options chosen during the install process - but that doesn't make it any less reasonable of a definition for any given computer. At least two ways of identifying this set and making it possible to revert to that set have been suggested already in this thread, one of them by you. Why would the idea of asking for this to be handled automatically - so that the person doing a new install doesn't need to already be familiar with how to cause it to happen, despite not having necessarily had the experience needed to gain that familiarity - be such an unreasonable one that you push back against it in such harsh terms? -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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