apt-get autoremove takes forever

[glasairman]

While trying to clear out old kernels in a UEFI system (8 or 9 surplus generations), I noticed that the apt-get autoremove command issues an update-grub command internally and rebuilds after >>EVERY<< generation deletion. This results in multiple rebuilds of the Grub configurations, including even those older generations that are subsequently going to be removed in a later pass.

While appreciating that there is a necessity for fallback at all times, is there not a more elegant and time saving way of doing this, maybe adding a parameter as eg. "apt-get autoremove min_generations=x" where there is specified parameter for minimum number of old kernels are kept (suggested minimum default current +2 back levels) and the rest deleted? This could enable a one pass autoremove, useful when new kernel versions are coming out every 5 minutes.

Grub2 version 2.02~beta2-36

david@david-linux:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Release: 16.04

david@david-linux:~$ uname -a
Linux david-linux 4.5.0-040500-generic #201603140130 SMP Mon Mar 14 05:32:22 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Thelasko (stever530)]

I don't know if this is a Grub2 bug or an APT bug.