On Debian and Fedora experiences

[Matej Cepl]

Matthew Miller scripst:
>> Now I have a naive question: does it need a yet another package
>> database to remove, together with xxx, each package on which xxx
>> depends, under the constrain that xxx has to be the ONLY package
>> requiring it?
> 
> install yum-utils. run package-cleanup --leaves.

Except, that this doesn't work. There is an equivalent in Debian-sphere
(called deborphan) but it is well known not to be able to find ex post
what should be removed correctly. Have you ever tried just to remove ALL
packages suggested by it? Moreover, it is not possible to mark (so that
you can remember it later), which libraries you have installed because you
just wanted them although they are not marked as dependency of any other
package (e.g., libdvdcss).

I cannot help myself, but this ex post tool is as poor replacement of
aptitude-like "remember during installation what you want" as diff-like
tools are poor replacements of revision marking (I was working couple of
years as lawyer so I know what I am talking about).

Matěj

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