Perhaps we are talking at cross purposes. My expectation is that update would list the packages to be removed because they are no longer dependencies of packages that were consciously installed. On that basis, there should be no surprise to users. The messaging could point users to a handy document to understand how they can make a package stick around by flagging it as one they have manually / consciously installed.
My point is that most users don't install 'linux-image-extra-4.13.0-15-generic' themselves, they have a system with 'linux-image-generic' installed, and it's dependencies change over time. AIUI, we already have a good way of holding back from autoremoval versions of the kernel which are currently in use, or which are the last-best-guess-good kernel, or which are the next-kernel-to-boot. All other kernels that were not explicitly installed by the user are simply ephemeral to that user, and for the vast majority of users, those ephemeral kernels build up over time taking large amounts of space and slowing down upgrades thanks to the initramfs generation mechanisms. Those kernels should go when they are deemed surplus; the user did not ask for them explicitly, and the user isn't going to boot them either. Here's what I have in mind, note the changes to text in the output of apt upgrade. The user is prompted, and told how to avoid autoremoval. $ sudo apt upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Calculating upgrade... Done These packages were automatically installed and are no longer needed: libgweather-3-6, linux-image-extra-4.13.0-15-generic Cancel this operation and use 'sudo apt install <package>' to keep them from automatic removal. The following packages have been kept back: libreoffice-help-en-us The following packages will be upgraded: libio-socket-ssl-perl 1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 1 not upgraded. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to apt in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1734104 Title: 'upgrade' in bionic should by default autoremove as well Status in apt package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: In bionic, apt upgrade should also autoremove by default. I have a few bionic systems (upgrades from xenial mostly) which are not yet showing that behaviour, it may be we haven't implemented that yet so this is just a placeholder bug in that case :) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1734104/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
