New Feature Request: Remove metapackages with aptitude

[integr8e]

Just my personal opinion, but I think it would be awesome if there was an extra option for aptitude that would allow an administrator to remove all packages associated with a particular metapackage, just by removing that metapackage. Something like "sudo aptitude remove --meta xubuntu-desktop" to remove all packages associated with "xubuntu-desktop" - instead of having to enter:

sudo aptitude remove abiword abiword-common cdrdao gqview graveman gtk2-engines-xfce ivman libdbh1.0-1 libenchant1c2 libexo0.3-0 libgpgme11 libid3tag0 libmad0 libmodplug0c2 liboggflac3 libsensors3 libxcomposite1 libxfce4mcs-client-2 libxfce4mcs-manager-2 libxfce4util-1 libxfcegui4-3 libxine1c2 mousepad rox-filer sox 
sylpheed sylpheed-i18n vorbis-tools xfcalendar xfce4 xfce4-appfinder xfce4-artwork xfce4-battery-plugin xfce4-clipman-plugin xfce4-datetime-plugin xfce4-diskperf-plugin xfce4-fsguard-plugin xfce4-genmon-plugin xfce4-goodies xfce4-icon-theme xfce4-iconbox xfce4-mcs-manager xfce4-mcs-plugins xfce4-minicmd-plugin xfce4-mixer 
xfce4-netload-plugin xfce4-notes-plugin xfce4-panel xfce4-panel-menu-plugin xfce4-sensors-plugin xfce4-session xfce4-showdesktop-plugin xfce4-systemload-plugin xfce4-systray xfce4-taskbar-plugin xfce4-taskmanager xfce4-terminal xfce4-toys xfce4-trigger-launcher xfce4-utils xfce4-wavelan-plugin xfce4-weather-plugin 
xfce4-windowlist-plugin xfce4-xkb-plugin xfdesktop4 xffm4 xfmedia xfprint4 xfwm4 xfwm4-themes xubuntu-artwork-usplash xubuntu-desktop

Seems like it would make life a little easier

[Fenyx]

Re: New Feature Request: Remove metapackages with aptitude

That's how aptitude actually works (if used correctly). In fact, before apt-get got the autoremove feature, it's one of the things that aptitude had over apt-get. See http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/aptitude for more info.

[integr8e]

Re: New Feature Request: Remove metapackages with aptitude

True, it just seems as though a similar method could be easily devised to uninstall/reinstall all software associated with a metapackage as is used to install it, without aptitude having to remember anything; that would make metapackes much easier to work with regardless of the package manager used to install them.