Re: Bug#136003: apt-get {clean,autoclean} Should Implement --list-cleanup
reopen 136003
retitle Confusing Documentation on --list-cleanup
thanks
On Wed, Feb 27, 2002 at 09:49:48PM -0700, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
>
> On Wed, 27 Feb 2002, Jason Bucata wrote:
>
> > apt-get clean and apt-get autoclean should support --list-cleanup,
> > instead of only doing --list-cleanup during apt-get update.
>
> list-cleanup is only meaningful if you change the sources.list file, if
> you do that then it is necessary to re-run update. The only reason the
> --list-cleanup option exists at all is so that people can go
> --no-list-cleanup which is actually slightly usefull..
>
> Jason
>
Indeed, it's very useful. So useful that I have --no-list-cleanup set
as the default in my apt.conf.
Hmm.
I'm running a set of shell scripts I've hacked together to download
packages from testing and/or unstable. They rely on having several
different versions of sources.list lying around for various steps in the
process, and switch between them with -o Dir::Etc::SourceList. I
download new package lists at certain points, and turn off automatic
list cleanup precisely so I *don't* have to run apt-get update after I
"change" the sources.list file.
I use apt-get autoclean to clean out packages at one point, and I
initially assumed that it would also clean up the lists (as the man page
says happens "automatically") as it cleaned up the downloaded packages.
At the very least, the fact that it only does list cleanup at updates
could be better noted in the man page. (I had to resort to the source
as it was to find this out.) The sentence "When on apt-get will
automatically manage the contents of /var/lib/apt/lists to ensure that
obsolete files are erased" doesn't say when that happens--I request that
it be reworded slightly, along the lines of "automatically whenever
apt-get update is run".
Jason B.
--
Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence, or learning.
-- Frederick W. Faber, British theologian
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