Package: apt Version: 0.3.16 Konrad Mierendorff wrote: > > You are about to do something potentially harmful > > To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, I understand this may be bad' > > ?] > > I can't believe this one! Programm behavior like this really sucks! > > One of the many small details that make Linux more usable is the absence > of such queries. Seems as if this is changing now.
You're missing a lot of history. Historically, the only way to remove an essential package has been "dpkg --force-essential --remove foo". You could not do it from inside dselect. Dselect remove methods probably just gave up with something like: dpkg: error processing bash (--remove): This is an essential package - it should not be removed. Apt allows you to remove essential packages from inside dselect for the first time. The prompt really isn't any different than dpkg's insistance on --force options in some situations. I do think that apt should be modified to omit the prompt if some other essential package declares a conflicts (and perhaps a replaces too?) on the obsolete essential package. Jason, the idea there is that we need *some* way to allow obsolete essential packages (like ncurses-base) to be removed without forcing everyone who upgrades to type in that sentance, and if the maintainer of an essential package declares a conflicts, I think that is a good indication that removing the obsolete essential package is safe. -- see shy jo
