> However, I would like to have an option to manually [install] > a dependency, which keeps a package automatically installed. For > example, I don't want suggested packages to always be installed with a > package, but in many cases I want some of them. What I currently have > to do is to manually install them, which means they will not be > deinstalled when I remove the package which suggests them.
If you manually install a suggested or recommended package, then mark it as automatically-installed, it will remain installed. This depends on the setting of APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant, which defaults to true. Where an actual relationship exists, the package should not be removed. Nothing to see here either. > In some > other cases there may not even be a suggests relation, and I might > still consider it "automatically installed because of this package". > > So in short: I'd like each package to have the option of getting extra > dependancies, manually specified by the user, which keep automatically > installed packages from being removed. Ok. Creating dependencies, that could be a useful extension. Note that you can currently achieve this behaviour by creating local metapackages. Such a package should depend on the main package of interest, and either suggest or recommend the supplementary package. Then you install the metapackage rather than the main package. Local metapackages are /extremely/ useful to control an entire set of applications of interest.[1] Regards [1] <http://juliank.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/managing-system-package-selections-using-custom-meta-packages/> _______________________________________________ Aptitude-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aptitude-devel
