Hello On 25 February 2012 05:32, Georgiy Treyvus <georgiytrey...@gmail.com> wrote: > package: aptitude > version: 0.6.3 > > The problem is exactly what the subject line suggests. There is a simple > workaround of passing --purge to aptitude purge but that looks and feels > ridiculous. Anyway let my terminal do the talking: >
TL;DR -- this "simple workaround" is actually a safety measure to prevent accidental data loss. Purging packages removes files that contain potentially useful data--logs, conffiles, etc.. Unless the user explicitly asks for a package to be purged then it will only be removed. This is intended to protect user data from being accidentally destroyed. On the command-line "aptitude purge byobu" the only explicitly requested package is byobu, so that is the only one purged. Note that apt-get behaives similarly, where "apt-get remove foo" does not even remove unused packages and "apt-get autoremove" also requires "--purge". If you *always* desire unused packages to be purged: -- /etc/apt/apt.conf Aptitude::Purge-Unused "true"; -- and this will be the default. *User beware*. In your example, perhaps I have customized the configuration of the auto-installed package python-newt and wish to continue using it in the future. If Purge-Unused was the default then when byobu is purged so too is python-newt, and along with it the customizations performed to it's configuration (not too mention log data). A savy user will pick up on this and cancel the operation, mark python-newt as manually installed, and redo--however, aptitude must be relatively safe for non-savy users as well. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
