Re: package.el dependencies

[Thierry Volpiatto]

Artur Malabarba <address@hidden> writes:

>
> I was about to suggest the following.
>
> +    (package-delete (cadr (assq pkg package-alist)) 'force)
> +    (package-install pkg selected)))

At first I had the same idea, but after I thought it was calling two time
custom-save-varaible for nothing (i.e one time to remove the package and
on time to add it again), so I think it is better to just delete the
package without removing it from the list.

>>> One more thing: now that we have package-selected-packages,
>>> package-delete should be fixed to be a real "inverse" of
>>> package-install, i.e. it should delete its unused dependencies.
>>
>> Hmm, not sure it is a good idea.
>
> I'm on the fence on this. Personally, I would automate this (as Stefan
> suggests).
> But, of all linux package managers I've used, I don't remember any of
> them removing dependencies without explicit request.
> Other options, for the sake of completeness:
>
> 1. Just like we say "N packages can be upgraded, hit U...", we could
> have a message saying "N packages are dependencies which are no longer
> needed, hit R to remove them".
> 2. After `package-execute' is done, we could check if there are any
> unneeded deps and ask the user a 3rd question "The following
> dependencies are no longer necessary, remove them? ...". If the user
> answers `n' here, we can also ask "mark these as explicitily selected
> to prevent future autoremoval?".

apt-get is sending a message when running install saying "x packages are
no more needed, remove them with apt-get autoremove", I think this would
be enough.

> My suggestion would be to change the "installed" string (displayed on
> the status column) to "dependency" for packages that are not in
> `package-selected-packages'.

Agree.

-- 
Thierry
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