Hi Florian, Dimitris,

Florian Zieboll via Dng writes:

> On Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:34:34 +0300
> Dimitris via Dng <dng@???> wrote:
>
>> Στις 21/4/21 2:53 μ.μ., ο/η Olaf Meeuwissen via Dng έγραψε:
>> >
>> > The first time around, there will be quite a long list of packages
>> > that are candidates for removal. Even without a desktop environment
>> > installed the list can be several tens of packages. Look for the
>> > "top-level" kind of packages to `apt-mark manual`, things like
>> > task-xfce-desktop, so you don't have to add a long list of packages.
>> > You can `apt-mark auto` them later and fine-tune your list of
>> > manually installed packages.
>> >
>> > # This is how I whittle down the list of xserver-xorg-video-*
>> > packages # that I really need :-)
>> >
>>
>>
>> i believe debfoster package can do the same thing (if i understand
>> correctly)...

That jogged 15(+?) year old memory ...

> Yes, 'debfoster' is a neat tool. I usually install and run it straight
> after the first minimal system installation and then regularly after
> installing additional packages. When you have the 'Install-Recommends'
> and 'Install-Suggests' options disabled in your 'apt' config, it keeps
> track of the manually selected additional packages; if an in depth
> maintenance is desired, there are the '--no-keeperfile' and
> '-ignore-default-rules' options.

... but seeing that apt-mark and a couple of APT configuration settings
will do the same I don't see why I would need to install debfoster these
days when apt provides everything already.

Is debfoster smart(er) about asking what you want to keep? As in asking
you about the packages that keep most of the other packages installed
first (rather than going through potential removals alphabetically)?

Hope this helps,
--
Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2            FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27
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