On Wed, Jan 19, 2005 at 03:08:27PM -0600, Wakefield, Thad M. wrote: > When apt-get upgrade wanted to download 100M, > I noticed there were packages I don't need. > When I tried to remove them with apt-get remove, it > wanted to remove additional packages. For example: > > # apt-get -s remove atlantik > The following packages will be REMOVED: > atlantik atlantikdesigner kde kde-amusements kdeaddons kdegames This is probably fine. > I assume there are other programs that depend on kde. > Google and Debian docs didn't clear up the confusion. > Additional test commands didn't help. The trick here is that the kde package is what's called a meta package. It doesn't contain anything itself, but it depends on most of the rest of KDE. So if you install kde, then you automatically install most of KDE, which is probably more than you need. > # apt-get -s remove atlantikdesigner > The following packages will be REMOVED: > atlantikdesigner kde kdeaddons > # apt-get -s remove kde > The following packages will be REMOVED: > kde > # apt-get -s remove kfax > ... > 203 upgraded, 23 newly installed, 4 to remove and 153 not upgraded. > > > >From the above it appears apt will let me remove kde. That's ok. Nothing should depend on the kde package, though many packages depend on, for example, kdebase > The kfax remove is thoroughly confusing. I am not sure what's going on there. > Is there a command that shows package dependencies? apt-cache is a good command to find out dependencies, as well as other info about a package. Start with apt-cache show kde > Is there a way to remove a single package? Yes, you can remove single packages with dpkg. In your case here you would need to add force options to get it to remove atlantikdesigner. I wouldn't recommend forcing removal unless you are sure of what you are doing. You are likely to break package. Just go a head and apt-get remove atlantikdesigner, unless you use something in kdeaddons. > Any clarification will be appreciated. HTH -- Jim Crumley |