Storing extended informations of recommends
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
apt (Ubuntu) |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
I'm using Ubuntu 13.04 dev with apt 0.9.7.6ubuntu6. In the attachments is an example where I installed brasero and wanted to remove it with all the dependencies that were installed shortly before. The summary: I had to install 35 new packages including brasero and on removing brasero and doing an autoremove apt removed only 22 packages. Now there is the question why the 13 packages are not removed but I know already the answer. The 13 packages installed as a dependency by brasero are seen as a recommended package of another package for apt. This is a big problem because it makes it nearly impossible to keep the system clean. But there is a simple solution to solve this problem:
apt has just to store more informations about the package states on installing. Just an example: Every time a package is installed (even if it is already installed) apt stores a list for every package which will be successfully installed or is already installed and is a recommended package about the package which installed it. With such a list apt-get autoremove can calculate if there are any manual packages which have installed recommended packages. If not the recommended packages could be removed too.
Keep in mind that this is just an example. Maybe this can be optimized to handle this better.