Re: Installing old/deprecated packages

From	Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: Installing old/deprecated packages
Date	2021-09-12 10:30 +0200
Message-ID	<CWt2a-6d5-1@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
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On Lu, 06 sep 21, 16:04:29, Linux-Fan wrote:
> riveravaldez writes:
> 
> > On 9/5/21, Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> wrote:
> > >
> > > My personal choice would be to install the packages without adding the
> > > oldstable repositories as to be reminded that they are obsolete and are
> > > likely to stop working in the future.
> > 
> > Thanks again. Very informative and educational.
> > When you say 'as to be reminded that they are obsolete', how/when/where
> > the system will remind me this?, will it be?
> 
> There is no automatism for this that I am aware of. There are tools like
> `deborphan` and `aptitude search ~o` that may tell you about them.

In aptitude's interactive mode there is a special section for them, that 
only shows up if there are any. Does this count as "automatism"? :)

For completeness, obsolete packages can also happen within the same 
release, e.g. old linux-image packages. APT is configured to keep one 
older version by default, the others are fair game for 'autoremove'.

> The release notes recommend proactively removing obsolete packages:
> 
> https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#for-next

Yes, though some care might be needed, depending on the situation[1].

E.g. leafpad was replaced by mousepad in buster. If you just execute the 
'aptitude purge ~o' aptitude might want to remove the entire LXDE 
environment, because the lxde metapackage in buster has
'Depends: leafpad | mousepad'.

The solution in this particular case is to tell aptitude to install (and 
set as 'automatic') mousepad in the same run[2].

[1] Always inspect the list of proposed removals by apt/itude carefully 
before confirming. In case it looks wrong just ask on the list with the 
copy-paste of the full output.
[2] There are several methods to do that, depending on your familiarity 
with aptitude.

Kind regards,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser

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Thread

Installing old/deprecated packages riveravaldez <riveravaldezmail@gmail.com> - 2021-09-05 05:20 +0200
  Re: Installing old/deprecated packages Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2021-09-05 14:50 +0200
    Re: Installing old/deprecated packages riveravaldez <riveravaldezmail@gmail.com> - 2021-09-06 05:50 +0200
      Re: Installing old/deprecated packages Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2021-09-06 16:10 +0200
        Re: Installing old/deprecated packages Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2021-09-12 10:30 +0200

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