On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 09:11:10AM -0800, Daniel Burrows wrote: > On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 08:51:12PM -0800, Carl Johnson <ca...@peak.org> was > heard to say: > > Just because a package is automatically installed doesn't mean that it > > is the choice the package manager would choose. For example many > > packages depend on www-browser, but which one is automatically > > installed? You can use aptitude to select the one you want and then > > remove any other automatically installed one, but how will it know > > that if you install from that list later? > > What should work, probably, is (this is an outline and not a complete > list of commands): > > (a) save "aptitude search '~i'" and "aptitude search '~i~A'" > > (b) run "aptitude install -o 'Aptitude::Auto-Install=false' > $(cat list-of-installed-packages)" > > (c) run "aptitude markauto $(cat list-of-auto-packages)" > > If you exceed the maximum number of command-line arguments, which you > probably will, you can either break them up into batches or do some > hacks to feed them into the command-line prompt (which means you have to > figure out how to force the program to make a prompt). Of course, > breaking the install runs up into batches would mean you have to > sort them topologically (the implementation of which is left to the > reader familiar with python-apt and Wikipedia).
fortunately, for (c), that's exactly what xargs is for: cat list-of-auto-packages | xargs aptitude markauto as for (b), the reader has an all-nighter in the CS lab ahead of them ;) Carl's point about alternatives is the trickiest part, though. Another complication is that you can manually install a package that is "recommended" by another and then mark it auto and it'll stick around. --Rob -- /-------------------------------------------------------------\ | "If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane" | | --Jimmy Buffett, | | "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" | \-------------------------------------------------------------/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org