On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Mitch Blevins wrote: > Mark Phillips wrote: > > [snip nice suggestion] > > This has already been discussed and is being addressed in apt. > Here's how it will work (if I understand correctly): > > Apt will keep a boolean flag called 'Auto' for each package installed > on your system. 'Auto' is short for 'Automatically uninstall this > package when it is not required anymore because of a dependency'.
What about a counter for the number of packages that depends on it. If the count is 0, the package can be safely removed. I think this work even for local packages, since you provide your local package increments the counter on packages it depends on. > > So, when you install package foo, and apt automatically installs > libfoo1 and libfoo2 because they are required by foo, then they will > be marked with the 'Auto' flag. Later, if you deinstall foo, then apt > will also deinstall libfoo1 and libfoo2, provided they are no longer > needed by any other packages. But, what if libfoo1 || libfoo2 is need by some other package? []s, Mario O.de Menezes "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but IPEN-CNEN/SP is the Lord's purpose that prevails" http://curiango.ipen.br/~mario Prov. 19.21