Comment 0 for bug 1479207

In current trusty, vivid, and wily, when you install ubuntu-minimal (from the "metapackages" section) in a clean chroot, some 75ish packages are installed. If you then "apt-get --purge autoremove ubuntu-minimal", some large portion (between 20 and 40, depending on the target release) of those dependencies are removed again.

If this test is repeated putting the release pocket version of apt/libapt on hold, the purge/autoremove only removes the metapackage, but none of its dependencies, so this is likely a regression brought on from the previous autoremoval fix.

This bug is release-critical for the 14.04.3 point release, as we install using metapackages instead of tasks in point releases, thus meaning that anyone removing ubuntu-desktop for any reason will end up with dozens (potentially hundreds) of packages on the autoremoval list.